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A. B. GREENLEAF. 




WILL/ AM G. BOYD, Publisher, / .v^^c \ ^\ 

SELMA, ALABAMA. jk: 




JPrice, Fifty Cents, 



Ten Years in Texas 



BY 



A. B. GREENLEAF. 



jmi^h^y 



WILLIAM G. BOYD, Publisher, 

SELMA, ALABAMA 
188 1. 



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Copyright, William G. Bovd, i88i. 



I'ress of C. a. Coffin & Rogers. 
New York. 



PRE FA CE. 



yj NA TIVE of Alabama, I have spent from the fall of 
1868 to the summer of 1879, ^^^ interval of about ten 
years, in Texas. 

During that time I traveled over fiearly all the organized 
counties, and a considerable portion of the frontier, with occa- 
sional visits to Mexico and the Indian Territory. 

Since my return East I have so often been plied with ques-. 
tions by the restless and curious that I have concluded to give 
them a short account of zvhat I sazv and experienced in my 
rambles. 

In presenting for publication these reminiscences of so event- 
ful a period of my life, I lay no claim to any literary excel- 
lence. My aim is to give an unstudied profile of facts as I 
found them ; and having had originally no preconceived idea 
of ever publishing, I kept neither journal nor notes as data 
for reference. Consequently, tliroughout the entire tvork I 
have had to trust solely to memory. Always, however, have 
I tried to be accurate, especially in any positive statement. 
My pen has followed up the main trail of my rambles. 

I have taken paitis to avoid, as much as possible, those 
natural digressions zvhich, zvJiile interesting in tJiemselves, 
would make this work too long for a narrati^'c such as already 
described. 



a/ 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Chapter I. — Getting under way g 

Chapter II. — Trip from Montgomery to Mobile, New Orleans and Gal- 
veston. Sea sick. Revolution of head and heels 1 1 

Chapter III. — A walk through the island city. A sharp trick expertly played 
by a peddling boy. From Galveston to Bryan. First sight of the prairies. 
Texas mud. Rustic scenes. Poisoned by a spurious policeman. Res- 
cued by regular police. Relieved by a doctor 14 

Chapter IV. — Continued rustic scenery. Superb camp-fires. Interviewed 

countrymen. Gander pulling 18 

Chapter V. — Great self-importance. A tour around town in search of 
employment. Rebuff upon rebuff. My business ideas modified. Dis- 
consolate retreat. A restless night. Renewed applications for business 
employment. Cold rebuffs. A friendly, but disconsolate interview with 
a Virginian 22 

Chapter VII. — Glowing accounts of cotton planting on the great Brazos. 
Adopted a new line of policy and business. Enthusiastic hopes and 
efforts. Riding on an ox-wagon. Mud, black mud, black adhesive mud. 
My first night in camp. Hideous, appalling, incomprehensible. Beau- 
tiful cotton-farms. Sandy prairies. Knoll in the heart of the bottom. 
Traits of the Freedman character 25 

Chapter VIII. — Lonely ramble through the frontier. Narrow escape from 
Indians. I traveled all night. Abrupt approach on a Mexican ranch. 
Pursued by them. A running fight. A dubious herd of ponies. Rations 
out. A dismal evening followed by a stormy night. Lost my hat and 
horse. Rain and sleet. Nearly froze to death. Morning dawns bright 
and clear. Found my horse. Traveled on westward. Repast on broiled 
rabbit. Found a man hanging to a tree. A Mexican woman replenishes 
my rations. Night attack by highwaymen. Repulsed them. Rested 
several days with a friend 28 

Chapter IX. — Items of interest. Kmigrants preparing for the frontier. A 
rugged ramble and scramble over the hills and dales of the Rio-Frio 
river. Killed a huge bear. A lonely, dismal and frightful night. Another 
day scrambling over hills. Stopped over night with a regular thorough- 
bred Mustang frontiersman. Spent an interesting, but unpleasant night. 
Bought ponies from a Dutchman near San Antonio. Drove them to the 
Brazos. Failed in selling them 41 



VI CONTENTS 

PACE 

Chapter X. — We met with a couple of [men claiming to be direct from 
North-western Texas, reporting the market for pony stock good. Thith- 
erward we went. Preparatory arrangements. Our line of march and 
retinue. Plain and Alpine scenery. Rip-roaring norther. Slippery, 
stickery mud. Suspicious characters visit our camp. Henderson's 
treachery. Sulphuric thunder-bolting. Stampede. Left forlorn on foot. 
Weary retrograde movement. Footsore, hungry and thirsty. Reached 
my starting point dead-broke. Sequel worthy of consideration 47 

Chapter XL — Found loafing unprofitable. Profitable engagement as patent 
medicine agent. Its rustic and romantic nature. Anticipated censure. A 
visit to a pioneer Texan. Twelve months without bread. Jerked beef. 
General proclivities, manners, habits, etc., of old Texans. Some excep- 
tions. Rainfall, game. Forest and domestic items. Characteristic 
negrojlogy. Frolic with wolves 57 

Chapter XII. — Mineral waters. The great pineries and mills. Ramble 

northward. Items of interest on the way 64 

Chapter XIII. — Further rambles north and west. A deceitful snare skillfully 
laid to entrap and rob me. My purse and filchers missing. Fruitless 
search for them. General items of importance. Hedge and stone 
fencing. Scarcity of timber. Sherman and its importance. Monopoly 
of capital. Hints to the unwary 67 

Chapter XIV. — A ramble up and down Red river. Diversity of soil and 
productiveness. Items of general interest to the contemplative emigrant. 
A tour through the Indian Territory. Items of general interest. Habits, 
manners and style of Indian life. A pretty, intelligent and civilly dis- 
posed Indian girl. Her hospitality and presents to me. Prominent 
traits of Indian character. General appearance of the country. Return 
to Texas . . 69 

Chapter XV. — Met my old comrade Garrett at Fort Worth, who joined me 
in my westward rambles. Scarcity of water. Beautiful scenery. Items 
of general interest to contemplative emigrants. Interview with an old 
resident Baptist minister. A distant view of Kiowa peak. A lively frolic 
with some Indians. Casualties. A thirsty night ride. Salt fork of the 
Brazos. Mountain spring. California trail. Parted with Mr. Garrett, 
the most faithful friend I ever met 75 

Chapter XVI. — I reluctantly parted with my friend Garrett. A lonely 
ramble. Magnificent scenery. A lonely man hanging to a tree. A 
hazardous plunge of my horse over a precipice in darkness. Appalling 
night. Daylight discloses my critical situation. Hazardous escape. Items 
of interest. Continued mountain and dale scenery. Beautiful and 
healthy region, but devoid of water. First glimpse of the Cado peaks. 
Big hole of water. Evidence of man and beast. Killed a cub bear. A 
glorious repast on cub. Indians hove in sight. Narrow escape. White 
men in pursuit. I was suspected of conspiracy with the Indians. My 
escape. Arrived at and ascended Cado peak. Beautiful Alpine scenery. 
Shot at and chased by robbers. My horse dies. I plod along on foot to 
the Brazos ; 80 



CONTENTS Vll 

PAGE 

Chapter XVII. — Tired rambling. Rest awhile with jjiev. J. P. Grace. 
Items of interest on agriculture in Middle Texas. Devastation of drought. 
Another rambling tour. Meet a jayhawking thief. He follows me up for 
several days and robs me. Hints on jirecaution. Splendid prairies west 
of the Brazos. Facts and fancies worthy of consideration go 

Chapter XVIII. — My advance to the frontier wilds. Howling wolves at 
night. .Sober reflections. Chased by a band of Ijandits. A running 
fight. One missing. I get away. Return south. Lonely rancho on the 
way. Hubbub between Mexican and American. River blockaded. 
Hazardous escape across the river. My baggage roi)bed. Opinion of the 
thief. Sequel 95 

Chapter XIX. — Assaulted by drunken negroes. A combat. Items of interest 
along the San Antonio river. Guadalupe river. The burr grass. A 
Mexican lying across the road ; thought he was dead. His treachery. He 
gets away with my horse. My woebegone feelings. A valuable lesson. 
Lonely tramp on foot. Lockhart and surrounding country. A belt of 
poor country. A school celebration. Scarcity of water. Food for re- 
flection in the sequel 102 

Chapter XX. — A thrilling and disconsolate night among wolves, succeeded 
by a serene and pleasant night. A thrilling scene of Indians chasing buf- 
falo. Habits of the buffalo. Habits of the Indian. Pleasant meeting 
of civilians. Killed a singular varmint and broiled it for supper. A 
frightful and bloody night with wolves. A narrow escape from highway- 
men 106 

Chapter XXI. — Concluded to return to civilization by way of the Panhandle 
of Texas. Appearance of the country. Met a squad of soldiers. Ramble 
south on the red fork of the Colorado. Chased by Indians. My escape. 
The appearance and my opinion of the country. Met a lone mountain 
trapper. His secluded retreat. His hospitality. The cause of his iso- 
lated life. Perfidy of woman. My opinion of commercial affairs. My 
opinion of the trapper, and my leave of him 115 

Chapi ER XXII. — ISIy visit from the lone mountain trapper. Transit through 
one of the most joggy and disconsolate mountain regions that I ever 
traversed, succeeded by a beautiful plain. That soon defaced by a con- 
flagration. My hazardous and appalling condition. My escape and its 
distressing consequences. The meeting of old friends, and their hospitable 
greeting and kind attention 126 



CHAPTER I. 

" There is a power, 
To make each hour 
As sweet as heaven designed it. 
We need not roam, 
To bring it h^me, 
Yet few there be who find it." 

Getting Under Way. 

HAVING, in the fall of 1868, disclosed to some special confi- 
dants my intention to "go west," and the programme of 
operation, friend-like, they remonstrated, and earnestly 
begged me to abandon them. 

They called my attention to the many treacherous characters that 
I would be likely to meet ; the many perils, privations and disap- 
pointments incident to a frontier life, but all to no avail. Having 
once made up my mind, I am not easily moved from my purpose. 
I secretly cherished the self-conceited impression, that what I did 
not know, King Solomon with all his wisdom could not guess at. 
These fancies were soon exploded. Experience, though often 
dearly obtained, is a treasure, and the parent of all human wisdom. 
Like many others, I found my surroundings very unsatisfactory. 
And to relieve these embarrassments, and attain that position in life 
that affluence alone (as I then thought) could give me, I packed up, 
and took steamboat passage from Montgomery, Ala., for the Lone 
Star State. Texas, undoubtedly, is a great State : great in terri- 
tory, great in native wealth, great in productiveness, great in internal 
improvements, great in many respects. From a point directly 
west of Shreveport, on the State line between Texas and 
Louisiana, directly west to a point on the Rio Grande, the 
State line between Texas and Mexico is about six hundred 
miles. From Brownsville on the Rio Grande, near the coast, 
to Red river, the State line between Texas and the Indian Terri- 
tory is about seven hundred miles. And the distance to the north- 
west corner of the State, bordering on New Mexico, is about nine 
hundred or more miles. I am not certain that these figures are 
exactly correct, but from the impression that I have of the distance, 



10 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

derived from traveling over this country on horse-back, I think they 
will be approximately so. Texas comprises in territory 274,365 
square miles. The State is said to be larger than France and Great 
Britain, and four times as large as Maine, Vermont, New Hamp- 
shire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, all combined. 
It is a vast inclined plane, gradually descending in a southeast direc- 
tion from its northern boundary to the Gulf of Mexico. As will be 
seen from its river flow, referring to a map of the State, the coast 
counties are nearly level for 75 to 100 miles inland. The surface 
then gradually rises for nearly half the State northward, where it 
breaks into knolls and hills, and finally into mountains in the north- 
west counties. Here it reaches the altitude of 5,000 feet. On the 
headwaters of the Brazos and Colorado rivers, you can see some 
magnificent peaks, conical, or sugar-loaf shaped. I don't think I 
could describe them to the southeast clodhopper better than to say 
that at a distance they would remind him of an old Alabama or 
Georgia fodder stack. I visited the top of Comanche peak and 
some others westward. When the atmosphere is a little hazy, you 
cannot distinguish objects at a distance, the horizon assuming a 
sombre, mystical appearance, shrouding from view the most promi- 
nent objects. But just after a whisking norther has dissipated these 
mists, you can discern the most minute objects at a great distance. 
It is quite a solacing treat to take in view some of these more beau- 
tiful landscapes — scenery, picturesque as the eye of mortal ever 
beheld. 



CHAPTER II. 

Trip from Montgomery to Mobile, New Orleans and Galveston — 
Sea Sick — Revolution of head and heels. 

I LEFT Montgomery, Alabama, on a river steamer bound for 
Mobile. I noticed nothing on the way worthy of mention. At 
Mobile I stopped, only to take the first lake steamer to New 
Orleans. At this place I stopped a day for recreation and to survey 
the prospects generally. 

On my first tramp around the suburbs, my attention was attracted 
by a man at a door talking in tone C sharp, second octave, and speed 
of electricity. Of course my curiosity was excited to a palpitating 
amazement, and to appease my throbbing interior, I must go and learn 
the cause of so great a hubbub. Immediately on my arrival at the 
place! was told by the speaker that for twenty-five cents I could go 
inside and behold birds of every feather and snakes of every stripe, 
and a thousand and one magnificent scenes, the like of which the eye 
of mortal never beheld in one grand combination on the face of this 
terrestrial globe. In I went. A few old stuffed bird and snake skins 
arranged in a show-case comprised the dozy scenes that my elevated 
imagination was so amply prepared to behold. An idea of my 
abrupt descent from the sublime to the ridiculous can better be im- 
agined than described. In the meantime I noticed at the back end 
of the room a man behind a show-case, similar to those so frequently 
seen in fancy dry-goods stores. In front stood two men, seeming to 
be making purchases. Of course, having paid my entrance fee, I was 
entitled to inspect all that was in sight. I passed down to these par- 
ties and quietly took my stand at the end of the show-case. I soon 
learned that the parties were negotiating for some playing cards. 
Some half a dozen packages were selected, and the vender, clerk-like, 
proceeded to wrap them up; but all at once he seemed to have just 
then thought of a little game connected with such cards, which he 
good-naturedly proposed to show. The customers seemed inordi- 
nately anxious to see it, whereupon the vender told them that they 
might select three cards from either pack which they had bought, and 
place the three selected cards face down on top of the show-case, 



12 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

and call for either one of the three cards, and that he would instantly 
turn that card. 

" How much, said the customers, will you stake on that ?" 

'' Five dollars," answered he. 

" Here's fifty," they rejoined; " now cover that !" 

He did so with two hundred and fifty. 

The cards were selected and placed face down on top of the show- 
case. At this epoch, I noticed, that while the vender kept his right hand 
on top, in seeming readiness for business, he kept his left hand under- 
neath. " Nine spot !" called out one of the customers; and instantly 
the vender turned it up, with the same stroke of the hand raking in 
the pile of money. 

They were all amazement. One of them having sufficiently com- 
posed himself to speak, stammered out, " You will give us a chance to 
win it back, won't you }" *' Of course," said he. Whereupon, the same 
amounts in cash, in the same manner, were placed in stake. The 
cards were selected and placed in the same position as before. The 
selected card was called for and turned up in the same agile manner. 
The customers left the room with less money by one hundred dollars, 
but with more wisdom, no doubt, by several thousand, than when they 
entered it. As I have already hinted, I noticed in the operation of 
the first game that the vender kept his left hand underneath the show- 
case. In the second operation I watched this point closely, and 
discovered that his left hand by a pull of a spring wire moved a slide 
from over the face of a glass that was stationed on the bottom of the 
show-case directly underneath the cards. His quick eye instantly 
catching the reflection of the spots, the lid silently and quickly slid 
back over the glass, leaving the bottom of the case in its usual uni- 
form appearance. The entire operation was performed inside of two 
or three seconds. I would never have been able to pick up this trick 
had I not suspected this point and the nature of the operation. Thus 
it is, that many hundreds of young men, in starting out in the world, are 
unwarily entrapped by old wharf-rats, who are ever lurking along your 
pathway to fleece you of your last nickel. Feeling satisfied that I 
had been amply reimbursed for my two bits, and that I was inhaling 
unhealthy atmosphere, I made my way direct to the street. After 
some further rambling around I halted at a restaurant and luxuri- 
ated in a magnificent oyster dinner. 

My point of destination being Texas, I left New Orleans that 
evening for Galveston, on board the Lizzie Simmons, a magificent gulf 
steamer — famous Morgan Line, running the Gulf coast of Mexico. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 13 

My trip was not as pleasant as I had anticipated. Soon after we were 
well out on the Gulf, a terrific east wind, with torrents of rain, came 
upon us. The Gulf waters were soon rolling and tumbling, mountain- 
like, in waves against our craft, and occasionally splashing briny 
suds promiscuously over the deck, which was soon cleared of every 
thing in the shape of human freight. Like rats to their holes, we all 
absconded. I was very much perplexed, as well as disappointed, at 
this boisterous visit of wind and rain. I had anticipated the pleasure 
of some pleasing scenery along the GuJ^ coast. The darkest of dark- 
ness soon overshadowed and surrounded everything visible. I 
retired to my bunk for the night, with the hope that a fair morning 
would dawn upon us; but, to my great dismay and consternation, I soon 
found that I could neither lie, sit, stand, walk, nor crawl, and by 
morning my head and heels were alternately contending for the floor, 
my interior claiming the absolute right to no longer retain or give 
quarters to that magnificent oyster dinner that I had the day before 
indulged in. Galveston, in due time, was descried through the dis- 
mal horizon. We were soon landed, and by hack transported to a 
hotel, where I immediately consigned my shipwrecked remains to the 
recuperating embrace of nature's vital restorer. 



CHAPTER III. 

A walk through the island city. — A sharp trick expertly played by a 
peddling boy. — From Galveston to Bryan. — First sight of the 
prairies — Texas mud — Rustic scenes — Poisoned by a spurious 
policetnan. — Rescued by regular police. — Relieved by a doctor. 

AFTER about fourteen hours retirement, my head and heels 
became more reconciled to their proper spheres; my appetite 
considerably more courteous towards the little sea-shell in- 
truder, and at the ring of the gong I bolted for the dining-room. 
Breakfast over, I repaired to the streets, with a view of inspecting 
the island city of the " Lone Star." Here I met a very clever and 
unsuspecting Georgian, who was also on his way to the interior ot 
the State. Our destination and object in view being the same, and 
spirits congenial, we agreed to perambulate the streets together. 

After passing around, up and down, over and across, several 
blocks, we were accosted by a very fair-faced, bright-eyed, politely 
deported little boy, with a small wicker basket on his arm, and a 
'' Please, sir; buy a cigar, or box of matches " on his lips. Feeling 
no need of either, I declined to purchase; but my good-natured and 
unsuspecting companion, from motives purely sympathetic, made a 
purchase of a couple of cigars, at a nickel a piece, remarking that he 
greatly sympathized with these indigent boys, and liked to encourage 
them in their efforts in honest industry, at the same time handing 
me a cigar and match. On pulling out his purse to pay for his pur- 
chase, he discovered that he had no change less than ten dollars. 
The little vender instantly remarked, " Hold my basket, Mister, and I 
will run into this store and get your money changed." His deportment 
was so affable, his address so apparently honest, that distrust did not 
for a moment enter the thoughts of either of us. My companion 
held the basket, while the little boy flitted away with the ten dollars, 
to get \\. changed. There we patiently stood, discussing the future 
greatness of the island city. We puffed and puffed, diffusing long 
curling fumes skyward, but instinctively giving occasional glances 
in the direction our much-admired little vender had gone. Yet no 
small boy hove in sight. I noticed that my friend often changed the 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 15 

weight of his body from one foot to the other, as though his corns 
were hurting him. He continued to fumigate with increasing veloc- 
ity, until the burnt end of his cigar was in close proximity. At this 
juncture he hurled away the stump, following it up with the remark 
that he had better look after the little scamp. On entering the store 
he accosted a clerk, to know if he had seen the little boy. Answered 
negatively, he continued his inquiries through the house. On being 
asked what the trouble was, this generous-hearted and charitable man 
recounted all the circumstances, whereupon the clerk, with a know- 
ing look, remarked, " Look here, my friend ; if you trust every ped- 
dling boy you meet you will soon have more baskets than a dray can 
freight." The basket and contents were valued by all present at 
about seventy-five cents. That boy was seen no more by either of 
us. As much of the ways of the world as I had seen, and wise as I 
had presumed myself to be, I could not avoid the conviction that 
there was yet much for me to learn and profit by, a fact amply veri- 
fied by later incidents. And no doubt many of my young readers can 
profit by remembering the checkered experience of Greenleaf. 

I saw nothing more of an exciting nature during my short stay in 
the island city of Texas. The weather was very unpropitious for 
excursions or sight-seeing. It was now December, 1868, and about 
the close of a long wet norther, so common to that section. After 
a very refreshing night's rest, I continued my journey by railroad to 
Houston, the bayou city of Texas, and a railroad centre. 

The weather continued to grow worse from day to day. The 
streets were in a sluice of mud and water, which precluded the 
pleasure of rambling around and viewing the character and import- 
ance of the place — a thing I so much desired. Being cooped up as 
I was, my spirits became restless and intractable, and I bid adieu to 
Houston. 

Taking the Central Railroad train for Bryan, then the terminus of 
that road, I saw nothing more attractive on the route than the pre- 
lude to the famous prairies of Texas. Up to this time I had never 
seen a bald prairie. My first impression, as they flitted by the glass 
window on the car, was that they were old worn-out fields, abandoned 
to stock. I remembered, however, that I was approaching a new 
country, and that old fields were not in programme. I further no- 
ticed that the cattle were increasing in numbers at a rapid rate. 
My curiosity becoming interested, I began to make inquiries about 
the singular appearance of things. I was told that we were passing 
through the prairies. As stingingly cold as the wind was blowing, I 



16 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

could not refrain from getting out on the platform, to make a more 
close and general inspection, all of which was grand and startling 
in its novelty. 

Our train ran into Bryan about sundown, the Railroad Hotel being 
near the depot. Myself and baggage were soon stowed away in comfort- 
able quarters. The great rattling, crackling hubbub going on down 
on Main street created quite a lively interest in my imagination, so 
much so, that it was with great impatience that I waited for supper, 
which was quickly dispatched. Then off to Main street, through 
Texas mud, I made tracks; that is, I left marks on the ground in my 
rear resembling the bottom of a bread tray. On reaching Main 
street I saw that it would be rather hazardous to attempt to cross 
over, for the whole street, as far as I could see, was one dense throng 
of ox- teams, from six to twelve yoke, drawing huge prairie wagons, 
through black adhesive mud twelve to fifteen inches deep. Inter- 
mingled with this horde of ox-teams, were to be seen horsemen 
under full speed, splashing and spattering the black loblolly mud 
promiscuously over a radius of all-out-of-doors. And as they went, 
their vocal organs reverberated with oaths upon oaths, the most pro- 
fane epithets that I have ever heard. 

The shades of a chilly December eve were now fast closing out 
the scene ; but few lights were visible on the street, and the few were 
lanterns hung out at the different stairs and saloons, the latter indi- 
cated by red and blue colors. And from their frequency one would 
think that a lively and profitable business was going on in that exhil- 
arating line of trade. As I passed down to the second block, my 
attention was attracted by a motly throng of human beings, repre- 
senting in their native hues several different races, each one tip- 
toeing to see over the heads of a procession fronting a store door. 
Of course my curiosity led me to take a peep and see the sights. 
On my first view, I saw a man on a counter with some article of 
merchandise in hand rattling away with the limberest tongue I ever 
heard. I learned that it was an auction conducted by the famous 
Texas auctioneer, Mr. Applewhite. The people continued to close 
up the rear rank in a very boisterous, uncivil manner. All at once 
I felt my hat rising from my head, and, before I could raise my hand 
to stay it, hat and lifter were both gone through the dense surrounding 
throng. It would have been quite a difficult matter for the eye of 
man to have followed up a fleeing hat in day-time, to say nothing of 
the absolute impossibility in a dark, unilluminated street at night. I, 
however, backed out of ranks as best I could, and noticed at the next 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 17 

door a gentlemanly looking countryman, to whom I at once related 
the circumstance of losing my hat. He at once suggested to get a 
police. At this point a dandy-looking townsman, who overheard 
these remarks, stepped up and said : 

" I am a policeman; what is your trouble ?" 

I speedily related the circumstances. 

" Go with me," said he. "I can find your hat and arrest the thief." 

As self-conceited as I had hitherto been in my wiseacre notion, I 
soon found that my school-days were not yet numbered. I never 
once thought to notice for his official ensign, or ask for his commis- 
sion, but went hurriedly away with him. He said it was useless for 
us to look around the auction-house, but we would certainly find the 
thief and hat down town. After passing two or three blocks, and 
crossing over to Railroad street, he halted me in the dark, fronting 
a saloon, saying "Stay here till I look inside." I did as ordered. My 
policeman soon returned, saying that no one was in there, but that 
we would soon find him down town, and down the street he con- 
ducted me. He soon halted and pulled out a flask from his pocket, 
saying : " It is cold ; I have a little good brandy ; try some ; it will 
help us." Unsuspectingly I took a good dram. It being very dark, 
I did not notice whether he took any, but he immediately placed his 
arm around mine, and said : "Let us hurry up." Before I made 
more than thirty paces, I was seized by the most excruciating pain 
in my stomach that I ever felt. Forty wild-cats on a general stampede 
could not have produced a more startling sensation than was then 
going on in my interior. It was but natural for me, under such 
terrific circumstances, to whoop and yell equal to a Comanche Indian 
on a Buffalo hunt. This obstreperous uproar brought instantly to 
my rescue two regular policemen. They found me on my knees and 
hands, vomiting like a sick kitten. It was very dark, and as I was 
not able to give an intelligible account of myself, they picked me up 
and took me to a doctor's office, where a dose of physic was immedi- 
ately administered. In a short time I was greatly relieved, and, by 
the assistance of the police and the doctor, I was able to go to my 
room. There I was put to bed, rested very well until near morning, 
when I began to feel in my stomach the same peculiar sensations. 
I got up, and drank some water, which afforded partial relief. The 
doctor, whose name I have forgotten, called in my room quite early 
in the morning and administered more physic, advising me to keep to 
tny room and remain quiet through the 'day. By next morning I 
felt all right again. 



18 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

The doctor stated to me that I had been poisoned by the liquor I 
drank from the flask of my spurious policeman, and that the dose 
was so large that it caused my stomach to disgorge it. This was all 
that saved me. The police who rescued me from my critical predic- 
ament called early in the morning, to try to get some information 
that would lead to the detection of the sneak-thieving perpetrator of 
so dastardly an act. But as I met the man in the dark, and as he 
sagaciously kept me "in the dark," I was not able to so describe or 
identify him sufficiently to warrant an arrest of any one. From the 
best information I could give them, it was our unanimous opinion that 
he was an old wharf- rat; one that followed the railroad for the purpose 
of practicing his villainies upon every unsuspecting greenhorn, such as 
the writer of the present narrative. With this ends the first eventful 
night that I spent in the interior of Texas, and long will its frightful 
reflections blaze terrifically in my memory. Such tricks as this, out- 
side of the large cities in the old States, are seldom, if ever, heard of, 
or perpetrated. 

But, my dear young reader, if you contemplate traveling West, 
allow me, in all kindness and good wishes for your safety, to admon- 
ish you, that you can never be too vigilant. It is true you will some- 
times meet good men, but you will oftener take the bad for the good, 
than the good for the bad. The object and purposes of this fallacious 
villain that I met in Bryan are too obvious to need comment. A pro- 
fessional thief undoubtedly he was ; one to whom, while on the 
Western frontier, I have met many similar. The recesses of the 
frontier afford a harbor favorable to their purloining profession, in 
which they can store with comparative safety their ill-gotten gains 
and with impunity seclude their diabolical individuality. 

My extensive personal rambles in the last ten years on the frontiers 
of Texas, Mexico and the Indian Territory, cover a broad area in 
personal experience, and if I was now solicited by a friend who con- 
templated traveling Westward, to draw upon my experience in the 
way of advice, first, and above all else, would I say, " Let perpetual 
vigilance and diffidence towards all men stringently accompany your 
every footstep." As previously admitted, you will in all these mysti- 
cal labyrinths occasionally meet good men, but my observation and 
experience has taught me to know that the professional thief in his 
external appearance is one of the most accomplished gentlemen that 
roams the earth, and his blarneyism would delude the highest phre- 
nological attainments in discriminating between the pure and the 
spurious gentleman. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Continued Rustic Scenery— Superb Camp-fires— Interviewed 
Countrymen — Gander FulltJig. 

AFTER having rested a day or two from the excitement pro- 
duced by my first reception, and having procured a new hat, 
I again ventured out on Main street — well fortified with a 
battery of precaution and fixed in purpose to observe the divine 
injunction — ''watch as well as pray." It was now approximating 
Christmas ; the fifteenth constitutional amendments had received their 
wages and were all in town, from old Jeff down to little Abe, and 
were, with few exceptions, exhilarating the inner man with the fluid 
of the worm. The free indulgence of this too often, to the detri- 
ment of man, multiplies his ideas and magnifies his very great self- 
importance. Nor was that class claiming the more delicate tints in 
color to be seen in less numbers, or less conspicuousness, on the 
main thoroughfare. 

The suburbs of the town at night exhibited one continuous circle 
of sparkling camp-fires ; the grounds were literally packed with huge 
prairie wagons drawn by long strings of loiig-horned ox-teams, number- 
ing from six to twelve yokes and upwards. These wagons were 
freighted with country produce, diversified all the way down from 
cotton bales to chickens and eggs. At dawn of day (and before) the 
teamster's buckskin lash could be heard in one continuous rattle like 
a Stonewall " wake-up " on a vidette post in the army of Virginia, 
making the poor ox warm and squirm in a most agonizing manner. 
The surging and press to secure a place on Main street was an item of 
at least twenty-four hours' importance to each and every teamster. On 
account of the dense packing of wagons from one end of Main street 
to the other at this early hour, there was no more moving that day. 
A wagon once reaching Main street was soon surrounded, and it was 
impossible to move in any direction until night, when those outside 
would move out to camp and leave the way open. The same per- 
plexing routine was repeated from day to day, until the terminus of 
the railroad moved forward. 

Having a desire to learn as much as possible about the frontier, I 



20 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

made it a point to interview as many countrymen as seemed to have 
the time and disposition to talk, from many of whom I learned that 
they brought their produce from a distance of more than a hundred 
miles. Notwithstanding, they expressed themselves much pleased 
at the progress and prospect of the road. " For," said they, " before 
this road started, we had to go all the way to Houston, several coun- 
ties below this, to market, a trip which takes several weeks." From 
this you may form some idea of the immense mercantile business 
transacted along this road, as it advanced northward ; and how so 
many individidual fortunes sprang up, as it were, mushroom-like; verj^ 
great profit, too, that this road must have realized from transportation 
both animate and inanimate, for at that time it was immense, to 
say the least of it. This was then the only line of public transpor- 
tation penetrating these extensive and fertile regions. I was told by 
old residents, that two years before my first visit to Bryan, the 
locality was a vacant prairie, containing a string of plank box houses 
along the railroad for several hundred yards, three or four hotels, 
and several heavy wholesale houses, with a multifarious supply of 
shops in general. At the date of this writing, 1880, Bryan, with 
many other railroad towns, had a city aspect. Substantial brick and 
stone buildings have been placed in the stead of the primitive board 
shanties. In the early afternoon of this day, my attention was 
attracted by a multitude of people collecting around a central point 
in the suburbs of the town. Having a disposition to let nothing of 
importance pass without investigation, I made my way thitherward. 
On arrival I saw two posts set firmly in the ground, some fifteen feet 
apart, and about ten or tAvelve feet high, with a cross-bar on top 
reaching from one post to the other. Underneath the centre of this 
cross-bar was suspended, by means of straps around the body, an 
old long-neck gander, the object of Avhich was a game peculiar to 
Texas fancy, called a gander-pulling. I would not attempt to 
occupy your time and attention on this link in the chain of my West- 
ern observations, but I know that a great many like myself never 
before as much as heard of a gander-pulling, much less witnessed 
the brutal scene. Furthermore, it will have a tendency to manifest 
more clearly to the reader the different tastes, manners and habits 
of people in different sections of the country. The poor doomed 
bird had his long neck denuded of every feather, and smeared over 
with the sleekest of soap-grease. He was now ready for business. 
So far as I could learn, the rules and regulations of the game were 
about as follows : A committee of arrangements, numbering more 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 21 

or less, was appointed, whose duty it was to see the game fairly and 
equitably conducted. An empty cigar-box was procured, lid fast- 
ened, and a drop hole made in the top of the lid, through which the 
entrance-fee of fifty cents must be deposited by each one that par- 
ticipates in the game, and this entrance-fee must be repeated at each 
successive entrance. Two of said committee stand some thirty feet 
from the rack, one on either side, with long, keen lash-whips in hand, 
whose duty it is, when the rider passes through, to give his horse a 
" git-up." Another committee-man stands near the victim, mop in 
hand, ready to keep the neck slippery. The procession on horse 
forms in single file somfe eighty or a hundred yards distant. They 
pass through one at a time. The winning card of the game is to 
grab the head of the gander and pull it off while passing through. 
As a general thing they all make a clear miss in their grab for sev- 
eral rounds. The old gander, notwithstanding his bound-up, greasy- 
eyed, and seemingly awkward condition, uses his long wiry neck on 
the dodge with a great deal of dexterity, and it is not until his vis- 
ionary and physical abilities become somewhat exhausted that the 
most expert grabber can seize his head ; and then it is so far sleek 
that it slips through the grasp as quick as made. In this way the 
game is continued until some one with a strong nerve succeeds in 
Avresting the head from the body. Then the box of money is all his. 
A great many pay their entrance fee of four bits for several rounds, 
just for the sport of the thing, while others have an eye to business. 
As to the funny part of the thing, I failed to see where or when that 
part in the drama came in, unless it was when a fellow happened to 
get a good grip on the head, his horse slipping out from under, 
and the gander-head from above, sprawling him lengthwise in 
about ten inches of black loblolly mud. This occurrence was not 
infrequent. As to the business point, there was some inducement. 
I learned that in this instance, when the head was pulled off, the box 
contained over one hundred dollars. With this ended another very 
interesting day to me, and I meditatively repaired to my room, in 
accordance with the programme I resolved on in the morning. 



CHAPTER V. 

Great self-itnportance. — A tour around town in search of eniploymefit. 
— Rebuff upon rebuff.- — My business ideas modified. — Disco7isolate 
retreat. — A restless night. — Renewed applications for business em- 
ployment. — Cold rebuffs. — A friendly but disconsolate intervieiv 
with a Virginian. 

AFTER a night of undisturbed and refreshing repose, I awoke 
to see the sun glowing bright and cheerful over all creation; 
and as I had been on the loiter, sight-seeing, for several 
days, I concluded that it was time to commence a tour with a view 
to business. From the very lively appearance displayed in the mer- 
cantile line, I very naturally concluded that my services were in 
great demand, and all I had to do was to offer them and they would 
be readily accepted, at a high salary. Breakfast over, I (in my own 
imagination) primped up to quite a business-like appearance, orna- 
mented my phiz with a roll of ignited " Havana," and forthwith went 
puffing down Main street, with the dignity and bearing of a million- 
aire. Being a little conceited in my personal importance, and the 
easy acquisition of a choice situation in business, I concluded to 
ramble down one side of Main street and up the other, and inspect 
the business houses with a view of selecting a house compatible with 
my views of business, and with inmates socially congenial. Having 
completed my round, making two or three selections by noon, I re- 
tired for refreshments, preparatory to entering into a profitable and 
permanent contract in business. Dinner over, with personal busi- 
ness appearance properly adjusted, I entered the house of my first 
choice, accosting the first clerk I met with an inquiry for the propri- 
etor of the house. The clerk at once informed me that I would find 
him in the counting-room, to which office I at once repaired, with no 
other expectation than a very polite reception and undivided atten- 
tion from the proprietor for any length of time I should choose to 
remain. On entering the office, I saw at a desk quite a business 
looking man, intently engaged, pencil in hand, making figures on a 
blank scrap of paper. I halted for a moment for him to turn and 
receive me, but he kept figuring away. I hailed him to know if the 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS, 23 

proprietor was in, to which he replied, without turning his head, " I 
am the man, sir. Have a seat." He kept figuring away. My ex- 
pectations were not as fully realized as I had anticipated; but I took 
the proffered seat, consoling my disappointment with the soothing 
thought that he was very busy on some important calculation, and 
would soon be through, to- give me that attention and information 
that I so much expected and desired; but he kept figuring away. 
And there I sat for one solid hour, squirming and nursing one of the 
most petulant cases of impatience that I ever met with. Finally, he 
perched his pencil above his right ear, and turned upon me with a 
look that would have chilled the intrepidity of a royal Bengal tiger, 
accompanied by the remark, "Well, sir; what can I do for you?" 
By this time my head of steam had so evaporated or frozen up that 
my loquacity had dwarfed into a dumpish predicament. With much 
effort, however, I mustered up courage enough to stammer out the 
main object in view, to which, with one eye turned up like a duck in 
in a hail-storm, he replied, "Well, sir; I have declined at least 
twenty applications for clerkships within the last week. I have, sir, 
about as many applications from men to sell goods as I have from 
customers to buy them." With these remarks, he hurriedly picked 
up frOm his desk a bundle of papers and left the room; but before I 
could rise and follow in the wake he wheeled about and brushed by 
me, and examined if his safe was securely locked. 

With this load of disappointment, I slowly and pensively retreated 
to the street, with my business views somewhat modified. 

The chilling winds of Christmas eve were now whiffing around 
the street-corners, tumbling hats through the streets, boys in pursuit, 
exhibiting as much romantic agility as a kitten playfully grabbing 
after the end of its tail. As " old Sol" was now about making his 
exit below the western horizon, I concluded to retire from the field, 
and, reorganizing my demoralized forces, establish a new line of 
policy. 

After having spent a very restless night, rolling from pillow to 
post, and at intervals pacing my room, pondering over the very un- 
expected and unsatisfactory results of. the preceding day, I arose 
and dressed, by early dawn, preparatory to making a general assault 
upon the whole business fraternity. I had hitherto been in the habit, 
through respect for age, of giving " old Sol " the preference of rising 
first ; but on this occasion I reluctantly deviated a little on account 
of the very perplexing diminution in the weight of my purse. The 
inexorable necessity of an early engagement in business, at a salary 



■24 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

at least sufificient to prevent a separation of soul and body, was now 
reaching a crisis of vital importance. 

Breakfast over, it was with much timidity I resumed my efforts in 
the acquisition of a business engagement. On passing down one 
•side of Main street and up the other, I left no business house unap- 
plied to. I remember having called at one or two houses to find 
myself there and then preceded by young men exhibiting their 
commercial diplomas and letters of business recommendation as 
guarantees of their qualifications. Of course I retreated without 
disclosing the object of my call. I found it quite a difficult matter in 
several instances to get the attention of merchants long enough to 
make the most concise statement of my wants. I remember one very 
irritable old case, and about the last one that I applied to, whom I 
found standing at his back-door reading something like a business 
communication. I said to him, " If you are not too busy, sir, I 
would like to speak to you a minute." 

Without taking his eye from his paper, he replied, " If it's a clerk- 
ship you want, sir, I have no vacancy — if you want goods, my clerks 
in front will wait upon you," and with knitted brow kept on reading 
his paper. Of course I retreated like a jilted boy in a courtship — 
brimful with both humiliation and indignation. On the next corner 
I was hailed by a very polite Virginian, to whom I had previously 
applied for business. He inquired about my success, and seemed at 
leisure and disposed to impart any information in his possession, 
which opportunity I hastened to embrace. In the interview granted 
me, he very kindly and candidly informed me that it was absolutely 
useless for me to make any further effort to obtain employment in 
the commercial line. " For, said he, not only this town, but the whole 
line of this railroad, and as far into the interior as I have been able 
to learn, is an overflow of young men from the old States in search of 
employment. No doubt many of them are worthy and well qualified, 
but the supply is far in excess of the demand." "And, continued 
he, there are hundreds of young men relinquishing comfortable 
homes and kind friends in the old States, to come West with barely 
money enough to get them here, under the delusive impression that 
their services are in great demand, and that the great thoroughfares 
leading to affluence and fame are open to all; but on testing the 
realities, they at once discover to their great regret and sad disappoint- 
ment their great mistake." 



CHAPTER VII. 

Glowing accounts of Cotton Planting on the great Brazos — Adopted 
a new line of policy and business — Enthusiastic hopes and efforts 
— Riding on an Ox-wagon — Mud, black mud, black adhesive 
mud — My first night in Camp — Hideous, appalling, incompre- 
hensible — Beautiful cotton-farms — Sandy prairies — Knoll in the 
heart of the bottotn — Traits of the Freedman character. 

IT was long after " old Sol " had made his debut this morning that I 
awoke to find that breakfast was over, and a cold lunch my 
reward. Having my programme som.ewhat matured for this day^ 
I repaired to Main street with the intention of interviewing the cot- 
ton planters as they came in town, with the view of embarking in 
agriculture. I was not long in finding several men engaged in this 
line of business ; all of them seemed inordinately anxious to make 
contracts with laborers. I was told that the great Brazos bottom, 
located but a few miles westward, would, with ordinary cultivation, 
produce annually from one to two bales per acre, or seventy-five to 
one hundred bushels of corn per acre, and that one hand could, 
without a strain, cultivate twenty acres in cotton and five in corn. 
The prices of cotton at that time was twenty cents and upwards, and 
corn one dollar per bushel — remunerating the laborer with the 
handsome sum of twenty-five hundred dollars. With these very 
flattering prospects, so favorably contrasting with my late disconso- 
late experience, I, without further consideration or calculation, mount- 
ed aboard an ox-wagon, and rolled out for the great Brazos bottom. 
It was now January, 1869, and the incessant rains of late, together 
with the great number of ox-teams, freighting cotton from the many 
large plantations on the Brazos, had so cut and worked up the slip- 
pery Texas mud, that our progress was rather tardy and unpleasant. 
I had never before seen anything that would admit of a comparison. 
The wheels of the huge wagons were, in appearance, spokeless. The 
spaces between were compactly filled with the black adhesive mud. 
On arrival at Little Brazos, a diminutive stream running parallel with 
the Big Brazos for some distance before emptying the stream, we 
found daylight fast d sappearing and giving space to the shades of 



26 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

night. The many large trees, Elm, Hackberry, Cotton Wood and 
Pecan, with which the banks of this stream were fringed, interwoven 
with native mustang grape-vines, intercepted the feeble light of the 
stars ; add to this an almost fathomless sheet of mud with sharp north- 
west winds, and you may form some faint idea of my dismal sur- 
roundings. My companions having a cold lunch, I participated lightly 
with them — more for the sake of courtesy than from hunger, and, as 
soon as practicable, I doubled up my shivering limbs within the folds 
of a blanket and perched my inconsiderate self on top of some salt 
sacks and goods boxes. Notwithstanding my very awkward and un- 
comfortable position, I slumbered quietly through the night. But I 
attribute this much-appreciated favor to my exceedingly wearied con- 
dition, brought on by unusual exercise on the preceding day. 

At dawn of day the teamsters were out, splashing and dragging 
their mud-laden boots around, camp-thwacking and gauging the poor 
ox with the but ends of their huge whips in a most unrelenting man- 
ner and linking them into line preparatory to moving. From the 
foretaste I had the previous night, and the foreboding prospects 
presented that morning, my enthusiasm was not elevated to such a 
giddy height as it was the previous morning. But I remembered 
that leaves had their time to fall, and flowers to wither and bud and 
bloom again. With these soothing reflections I nerved my resolutions 
to unfaltering stability. Breakfast over, we moved on slowly and 
tediously. The entire retinue seemed to be all right and in a cheer- 
ful mood. I could account for this great discrepancy apparent in 
our feelings in no other way, than that they were amid their accus- 
tomed and usual surroundings, while I, as it were, had been abruptly 
precipitated into a new world of dismal despondency. Immediately 
after emerging out of the low grounds adjacent to the river, we 
entered long plantation lanes — right where the attractive part to the 
eye of the cotton-planter begins. 

We continued in our snail pace through unabating mud and pro 
longed lanes, intersected at about every league by cross lanes, until 
about noon, when we reached Mumpford's prairie, a noted place of 
much resort for the bottom clodhoppers. This prairie takes its name 
from a Mr. Mumpford, the first settler there in the memorable days 
of Hon. Sam Houston, a pioneer soldier and statesman of the Lone 
Star State. 

This prairie is the terminus of the slightly elevated ridge of land 
that divides the Big and Little Brazos rivers for a considerable dis- 
tance. It is of oblong shape, numbering, I guess, less than one hun- 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 2*7 

dred acres. It is an absolute bed of sand, seeming to have been 
drifted up by a simultaneous overflow of both rivers. Its surface is 
interspersed by beautiful groves of live oak. Its isolated peculiari- 
ties, contrasting so greatly with the surrounding black mud, renders 
it a little remarkable. 

Its freedom from the obnoxious mud and its pleasant scenery 
and the easy acquisition here of the ever-glorious glass of grog, 
makes it a great point of attraction to the countless number of freed- 
men inhabiting the surrounding bottom. All of these, irrespective 
of age, size, or condition in life, could be seen with a navy six- 
shooter and an Arkansaw " tooth pick " suspended to a raw-hide 
belt buckled around their waists. Supplement the above equipment 
with a sore back Mustang pony, an old army saddle tree and rope 
bridle, and you have the exact picture and entire possession of the 
fifteenth constitutional amendment. 

It has been an established and ever-prevailing custom, from the 
incipiency of their freedom, for them to abandon business and 
repair to these prairie grogshops early Saturday morning, to remain 
until Monday morning, drinking, gambling, horse-racing, quarreling, 
and sometimes fighting. But generally they are not brave nor much 
disposed to fight. When they do engage, however, in a combat, it 
is with a death-grapple, using with all their might, pistols, knives, 
club, axe, or any other club or implement upon which they can seize. 
From the general observations that I have made of their exploits, I 
would fear one less on account of his pistol than his empty hand, 
for they invariably shoot at random ; but with a club, they strike 
with great force and precision. 

These boisterous exploits are seldom indulged in, except when 
prompted by intoxication or some freak of superstition, which in- 
cites them to the defence of some imaginary point of honor. 

My first day or two loitering around these headquarters, making 
general observations, passed off not very pleasantly, but somewhat 
interestingly, as I gathered up much available information. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Lonely rainhle through the frontier — Narrow escape from Indians — / 
traveled all flight — Abrupt approach on a Mexican ranch — Pur- 
sued by them — A running fight — A dubious herd of Ponies — Ra- 
tions out — A dismal evening followed by a stortny tiight — Lost tny 
hat and horse — Rain and sleet — Nearly froze to death — Morning 
dawns bright and clear — Found my horse — Traveled on Westward 
— Repast on broiled rabbit — Found a man hanging to a tree — A 
Mexican woman replenishes my rations — Night attack by highway- 
men — Repulsed them — Rested several days with a friend. 

AS I traveled on vvestAvard, the general routine of incidents con- 
tinued in uniform monotony from day to day. I camped 
alone on the prairie at night. After passing Fort McKavet, 
I entered the wild frontier, where the Indians, Mexicans, and all 
other purloining bandits prowled around at will. I was fortunate 
in not coming in direct contact with Indians in this country, though 
a hair's-breadth escape is all that I can claim. 

A herd of them passed near by me in single file, going south. It 
was one evening, while I was resting in a clump of scrubby brush- 
wood, on the edge of a narrow valley. In the afternoon of this 
day, ,1 concluded to stop, rest, and graze my horse until night, and 
then travel on. The weather being mild and the moon near full, I 
thought that I c^ould travel with more safety at night than in the day, 
and by moonlight I could easily keep my right course. 

I selected, as I thought, a secluded spot next to the hillside of a 
narrow valley. The low, thorny brush was quite thick for some dis- 
tance up and down this side of the valley. Having made my selec- 
tion, I dismounted and staked my horse, wrapped my blanket around 
me, and was soon in the rosy arms of oblivion. My nap was long 
and sweet. Some four hours passed ere I returned to conscious- 
ness. The sun had passed beyond the summit of the western hills, 
while his departing rays were faintly glimmering on the eastern knolls 
behind him. 

Being wearied from incessant fatigue in travel, and a little stupid 
from my late snooze, I was somewhat tardy in resuming my travel. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 29 

My horse had grazed to his satisfaction, and was lying down, rest- 
ing. These circumstances were a fortunate occurrence to me, for with- 
in a few minutes, while twilight was yet spread abroad, I discovered 
on the opposite side of the narrow valley, about one hundred and fifty 
yards from me, a herd of red-faced feather-caped Indians, strung out 
in single file. As well as I could count, there were about sixty in 
number. They passed on down the valley in a slow pace, evidently 
on a prowling ramble for stock. Considering their vigilant nature 
and close proximity, it has ever since been a perpetual wonder 
how I was ever passed by them unnoticed. But such was my happy 
lot. 

I immediately prepared for active movements, and followed them 
at a respectful distance in the rear. I did this for the purpose of 
ascertaining what course they would take, for my laid-out route was 
in the same direction that they were going. But to my great grati- 
fication, at a distance of about two miles down the valley, they 
turned left oblique and went over the hills eastward. 

At this lucky turn in the state of affairs, I felt greatly relieved, and 
once more indulged in a long, unbroken respiration. I turned my 
horse oblique and kept him in a lively pace till daylight, when I 
repaired to the first clump of brushwood that I saw. I knew that 
the habits of the Indian, in making his aggressive movements, was 
to travel down the valley for protection from sight. I also knew 
that, on their retreat with their booty, except when closely pursued, 
they took the open prairie with all the velocity that they could ac- 
quire. In either event my safest retreat would be in a clump of 
brushy timber on the high prairie. In this isolated cluster of scrub 
oak and mesquite brush I remained nodding until three o'clock p.m., 
when I remounted and set my compass for camp Hudson. Nothing 
larger or more interesting was noticed during the evening than an 
occasional " bounce-up " of a Jack Rabbit. Some time after night- 
fall, I suddenly rode upon a small shanty on the edge of a valley. 
Three or four wide-mouthed dogs came barking and bawling at me 
in a most abrupt and boisterous manner. I turned my horse ob- 
liquely to pass, if possible.' The dog halted at what seemed to be 
their yard limits, but through policy, as well as curiosity, I kept a 
vigilant eye to the rear. There was no light in the shanty as I 
approached it, but I soon noticed a glimmering light through a crack; 
then it disappeared. To my very unpleasant feeling, I saw two men 
mount horses and pursue me in a brisk trot. I had no time for 
thinking, planning, or anything else, but to get further, which I did 



30 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

with good speed. My pursuers followed close in the wake, but evi- 
dently not gaining ground, which satisfied me that their stock were 
common ponies, while my horse, though jaded, was of good size 
and speed. We made not more than a quarter of a mile, when they 
commenced firing at me from long range. I knew from their reports 
that they were using pistols. I was well armed with a double barreled 
breach loading shot gun, charged with cartridges containing three 
buck shot and a good sized ball ; besides, I had small arms. It was 
not my policy, however, to give them battle if I could avoid such a 
catastrophe. I thought that it was sometimes expedient for a man 
to be a philosopher as well as a soldier. With this considerations I 
prepared for a running fight, and held up my horse until I thought 
them in good range for my shot gun ; then, with the best aim that I 
could take by moonlight, I gave them a broadside with both barrels 
in quick succession, wheeling my horse into my line of retreat with 
both spurs riveted into his flanks. 

From the flash and smoke of my gun, I was not able to see what 
execution was done, nor did I deem it prudent to wait and make a 
close inspection. But to my great delight, I soon found that I was 
not pursued, and I countermanded the flank movement of my Mexi- 
can persuaders and held up my horse to save his wind and vim for 
future emergencies. 

Within the distance of a mile I emerged from the valley to the 
plains. I was soon on a high ridge, and by moonlight I could see 
to a great distance. It was a most beautiful moonlight night, but I 
regretted that it was not dayhght, that I might feast my eyes upon 
the picturesque landscapes that seemed to surround me. I met 
with nothing more of a startling nature until late in the night, when 
I rode into a herd of ponies. Their gentleness aroused in me a 
little uneasiness, as I knew that the wild ponies on the plains were 
skittish, and would not allow you to approach near them. My 
impression was that they were a herd which had been driven out 
from the settlements by Indians, and had stopped to rest and graze,. 
or that they were driven around and herded there by Mexicans. 
Hence their gentleness. In either case, I thought the surroundings 
a little critical. If Mexicans, they would naturally regard me as a 
prowling thief, and go for me ; if Indians, their great glory and 
honor is the acquisition of a pale-face scalp. You may be 
assured that I neither winked nor blinked, but kept a vigilant eye in 
every direction. Be the circumstances of the herd what they may^ 
I saw nothing in human shape, and rolled on my way rejoicing. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 31 

The morning dawned clear and bright, to find me still increasing 
the distance from civilization. Notwithstanding the inordinate 
fatigue that myself and horse had gone through, neither of us were 
relax in our vim and energy. As to my own wakefulness, I attributed 
it to the exciting incidents and circumstances around me. Hence 
we traveled on until mid-day, when, through compassion for my 
horse, on whose ability to go my safety depended, I obliqued to a 
little brushy valley to my left, where was found a narrow ravine, 
extending back some distance. Up this I went, until it narrowed 
down to about ten paces broad, with some fifteen feet embankment, 
naturally environed by shrubbery. The grazing in the bed of this 
ravine being very good, I dismounted, staked my horse and vora- 
ciously devoured the last morsel of my rations. Where or when I 
could replenish the lamentable void, was a reflection of much 
gravity to me. But to the refreshing embrace of snoozedom I 
unhesitatingly committed my exhausted remains. The day was 
far spent when I awoke, to find all around me as quiet and undis- 
turbed as I had left it. My horse had laid down, and was resting, 
his'chin on the ground, evidently asleep, for when I made a noise 
he jumped up as though frightened. I remounted and continued 
my travel southwest; but the evening was very gloomy, prognosti- 
cating an ugly and dismal night. But no second alternative was 
left me. Onward I must go. Daylight was fast giving space to the 
shades of night. Hastened on was the darkness by overshadowing 
clouds. These hideous surroundings were augmented by greasy- 
looking streaks of forked lightning. Then there was an occasional 
low, rumbling noise, in the similitude of old whisky barrels tumbling 
over a craggy precipice. All combined brought home, sweet home, 
vividly to memory. But grim fate's unrelenting shackles were 
sealed and extrication impossible. This disconsolate state of affairs 
continued to increase with the speed of electricity, until the first 
pioneer whiff of an icy norther gave me an abrupt gauge. In sub- 
stance, it as much as said, " Clear the track, for old General Harry 
Cane is on a stampede." In compliance with this timely injunction, 
I hastened to adjust my fixtures. It was now so dark that I could 
not see whether or not any refuge in timber or breaks on the "prairie 
were in reach. But faithful hope, man's most lasting friend, though 
often erroneous, whispered, "yes," and onward I pressed through 
tumultuous surges of wind and rain ; but I soon found that its 
unbridled vehemence was steadily pressing my horse obliquely at a 
rapid rate. I felt that I must dismount, or myself and horse would 



32 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

be uplifted and sent kiting, belter skelter, over the prairie. In my 
effort to dismount, my head reached the ground in advance of my 
feet, and my horse and hat went pell-mell with the wind. My 
saddlebags and gun were buckled to my saddle. My blanket 
and navy six being buckled to myself, they remained with me. By 
the frequent bright flashes of lightning I could see that the prairie 
descended with the wind, and I resolved to go in that direction, 
with the hope of finding some friendly refuge. In addition to the 
steady stream of wind that was blowing, there were at short inter- 
vals cyclopic squalls that somersaulted everything not anchored to 
the earth. Between these squalls I would make a kind of turkey 
trot, down grade, until tumbled. I finally ran into a gully, and 
there squatted until the massive flood of water from up the plains 
attained such bulk and force that I had to skedaddle or be floated 
away. Whereupon I toddled off down grade, until, by a bright flash 
of lightning, I saw an upright break on the ground. I halted for 
the next flash of lightning, which disclosed the break only ten or 
twelve feet off to a valley. I at once slid off down into a huge 
bunch of grass. This embankment and grass made a complete for- 
tification against the howling onslaughts of the wind ; but the wind 
had free access to my denuded head, and already saturated body. 
Feeling grateful for small favors, I appropriated my acquisition into 
a bunk for the night. By this time my sensitiveness to cold had 
become so deadened that I suffered but little, I can distinctly 
remember that I never slept a moment through the night ; but what 
I thought about I never could remember. I do not think my mind 
acted upon any subject whatever. 

The first impulse of consciousness that I remember was light. In 
lifting my blanket from my face, I saw that daylight was abroad upon 
the land, and that old Sol's red eyebrows were peeping over the 
eastern hills. The majestic winds from Alaska's icy climes had 
drifted the last speck of clouds across the Gulf of Mexico, via Cuba, 
and thence further on. Their tracks were left in glittering icy tags 
on every blade of grass, but the genial smiles of old Sol soon blotted 
them out. In my efforts to rise and look around at the dilapidated 
state of affairs, I found my limbs almost completely paralyzed. It 
was with considerable effort that I straightened up. I managed to 
scramble up to the most elevated point nearby, and get my spy-glass 
and take a view of the surrounding objects, to see if my horse was 
among them. At about a mile distant I saw a horse, but on account 
of the bright, dazzling reflection of the morning sunlight on the glit- 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 33 

tering ice, I was not able to determine definitely whether it was my 
horse or not. I determined to go and see. On arrival at the spot, 
to my very great delight and incomprehensible relief, I found my 
horse with lasso entangled in a mesquite bush, saddle-bags and gun 
all safe as when we parted, except the glittering decoration that the 
fandango had overlaid them with. My poor dumpish looking horse 
was all humped up with glittering tags of ice, disseminated from the 
tip of his ears to the tip of his tail. In a very clumsy manner, as you 
may imagine (for my fingers were all thumbs), I extricated the 
lasso, but the poor brute looked so shivery and rickety, that I was 
afraid to mount him ; I led him off. He was not long in showing 
his agility by prancing around me. This warranted me in mount- 
ing, after which he was not long in suppleing up and getting into 
good speed. 

The ice melted away, and all seemed right except the handker-, 
chief that had taken the place of my hat. It, however, felt very 
well, but I did not think that it looked well ; but as there was no 
one to look, I let the thought pass. By the middle of the .evening 
my appetite was getting a little ravenous, and this, without a morsel 
wherewith to appease the rattling down that I had received the pre- 
vious night, together with present prospects, were fast bringing the 
young man's temerity to compromising terms. I was exceedingly 
fatigued, both mentally and physically, and I resolved on looking out, 
before dark, a secluded spot in which to bivouac for the night. In 
this I was quite successful. I saw to my left, on an elevated point, 
a knob mantled with shrubbery, and thenceward I repaired. The 
knob being too steep to ride up, I dismounted, and led my horse in 
a zig-zag way until I reached the top. Here I found a flat place cov- 
ering half an acre or more. The grazing was short but sufficient 
for one horse, and I gave him the full forty feet of my lasso. With 
saddle blanket for mat, and traveling blanket for covering, saddle 
bags for pillow, I retired for the night, relinquishing to oblivion the 
last thought of everything earthly, and not a ripple crowded my 
wearied brain until morning, when I awoke to see the sun clear above 
the eastern horizon. On looking around, I saw my horse and all else 
as I had left it. I don't remember of ever feeling better in my life. 
It was true, my diameter had diminished and my belt buckle wanted 
a hole or two shorter ; but I felt well and cheerful ; such feeling as 
the bracing atmosphere of the mountains only can produce. As my 
commissary department was bankrupt, no time was consumed in 
breakfast, and I was soon down on the plains wending my lonely way 



34 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

westward. During the day I came to a road that seemed to be hoof 
worn by animal travel. I was somewhat at a loss to determine 
which way to go, as the prairie was open all around. I was not lo'ng 
in concluding that it would not be hazardous to dismount and w^it 
for some one to pass, from whom I might get some information 
about the surroundings in general. I was not long in suspense, when 
two Mexicans and a white man rode up. I learned from the white 
man that I was on the old Col. Johnston trail leading from Fort 
Clark to Fort Terrell ; and that I was near the head waters of the 
Neuces river, and some distance south of Camp Hudson. 

Bad weather and other coincidents had led me farther south than 
my laid out route. In my great solicitude about other matters, I 
never once thought to ask the man for eatables, and as they seemed 
in a hurry and not very communicative, I let them pass northward 
and I went south. I was not long in reaching the west fork of the 
Neuces river. Being now nearly two days without food, I concluded 
that eat I must, and that soon, or my physical abilities would lan- 
guish, and enfeeble me for travel or self defense. I examined my 
haversack and found salt and black pepper, and the first Jack Rab- 
bit I saw I bled him with a bullet, and picked him up and obliqued 
some half mile to timber, where I broiled him on a tiny fire with salt 
and pepper lavishly sprinkled on, and to say that I there and then 
devoured his entire net-carcass with a ravenous relish, would but 
feebly express it. Some of my fastidious readers, who have been 
lolled in the lap of luxury from the cradle up, may say that they 
could not relish such a dish, but to these J have only to say that they 
have never been hungry. 

After this most refreshing repast, which supplied a yawning void 
in my interior, I remounted and took the south end of the old 
Johnston trail, and by moonlight traveled until late in the night, 
when I came to another trail leading eastward by south. I thought 
that this trail was more likely to lead me out of the wilderness, of 
which I was getting most heartily tired. I futhermore had noticed 
all the evening, and then dimly saw by moonlight, that the country 
wetsward, in the direction of Rio Grande, looked rather mountainous 
and rugged. 

This fact satisfied me that it was not far to San Pedro or Devil's 
river, noted at that time for the haunts of diabolical desperadoes. 
With this view of the surroundings, I took the trail leading eastward. 
I soon found that this trail led down the Neuces river. I was much 
fatigued and so was my horse, but it occurred to me that it would be 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 36 

hazardous to camp near this stream ; for such places were the fre- 
quent resorts of Indians, and white and Mexican thieves and high- 
waymen. 

In view of this I pressed forward through the night. Daylight 
found me still in proximity to the strips of timber adjacent to the 
Neuces river. 

I began to think seriously about halting and taking a little recrea- 
tion. I saw to my right a heavy cluster of timber, and I concluded 
to repair thither and select a secluded spot in which to rest and re- 
cuperate the lassitude of myself and horse. But before reaching 
the timber I descried an object that looked like a man up in a tree. 
Of course, I was perplexed a little, and my first impulse was to re- 
treat. But a second thought suggested that I had better go and see 
him. Perhaps he could tell me something to my advantage ; and 
thitherward I went. On approaching near, I saw that the man was 
hanging by a rope around his neck to a tree, about eight feet from 
the ground. I cast glances in rapid succession in every direction, 
but could see no one. It was about ten o'clock, A. M. 

Notwithstanding my hitherto abhorrence to the superstitious doc- 
trine of ghosts, I must confess that on this occasion I felt a little 
skittish. His long hair was dishevelled over his face as if in sym- 
pathy it was mantling his sinful brow from the face of nature. His 
hat was lying directly underneath him as though ostensibly draped 
with reverence to the God he then was meeting. And notwithstand- 
ing that I was hatless, I could not muster up audacity enough to 
appropriate his. His dress, though soiled, was of fine texture. On 
riding around to his rear, I saw a paper pinned to the skirt of his 
coat, and some writing on it. I resolved to see what this epitaph 
was, but my horse refused to go near enough for me to read it, and it 
was too high for me to read it from the ground. I dismounted and 
tried to lead my horse up to the place, and then mount him. But 
with eyes glared with frightful expressions, he would do nothing but 
pull back and paw the ground. I tied my handkerchief over his 
eyes, still he would not lead forward, but pull backward. 

As retrogression seemed to be his favorite tactics, I seized him by 
the bit of the bridle and mane top and backed him by the rear to 
the spot. While he was yet hood-winked, I mounted him and read 
the inscription, which was verbatim as follows : 

''''Hung for horse-stealing. He said his natne was William Mc Bride, 
but he was a liar as well as a thief." 

It was written with a pencil in a coarse, rough hand, but very 



36 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

legible. The weather was cool and the body showed no signs of 
decay. The execution evidently had not been done more than two 
days, for about that time a sweeping norther had passed over that 
section, and the general appearance of the body, together with the 
paper pinned to his coat, evidenced no sign of having been in rain. 

I personally witnessed, during the war between the States, some 
shocking scenes in mangled human bodies, but this lonely man, sus- 
pended between heaven and earth as I viewed him, produced a more 
depressing feeling upon me than I ever before experienced. As my 
horse would not move while hood-winked, I had to dismount and 
unveil his face ; and it was fortunate for me that I did dismount, 
for, as soon as the handkerchief left his eyes, he sprang forward with 
all his might, and it was all that I could do to prevent him from get- 
ting away. Brute as he was, he seemed to know that unlawful work 
had been perpetrated among men. I mounted and rode away, firmly 
fixed in purpose to get out of so unhealthy a clime as quick as possi- 
ble. I soon left the valley and merged to higher ground, when I 
came to the first house that I had seen in a long ride. It was a 
diminutive shanty in Mexican style. In front of it stood an old 
Mexican woman and two children. I inquired if I could get some- 
thing to eat. 

The old woman seemed not to understand me, and motioned with 
her hand for me to leave. 

By this time a young Mexican woman came out of the house with 
a loaf of bread and a string of jerked beef, and placing it on a 
stump in the yard, motioned me to take it, which I did. She then 
motioned me with her hand to leave, supplemented with a chattering 
rigmarole of Spanish, from which I could derive about as much 
intelligence as from the cackling of an old hen. She evidently could 
not speak English, but seemed to understand what I wanted. 

As I did not start off quickly enough to suit her wishes, she com- 
menced to point one hand to the trail and the other to the valley 
below, accompanying her gesture with another roll of Spanish about 
as intelligible as the first. But I inferred from her action that it 
might be hazardous for me to remain, as her men folks were down in 
the valley and might come upon me and handle me roughly from 
finding me at their premises in their absence. With this, to me, 
intimated precaution, I left. 

I clear forgot to offer her pay for her very much appreciated hos- 
pitality. I looked back and saw that they were gazing after me. I 
turned my horse about and held up a silver half-dollar. The young 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 37 

woman came running to me, and received it with a broad grin and 
several mustang scrapes and bows, and again motioned me to go for- 
ward. It occurred to me that all this might be ominous of more 
than mere Spanish twaddle, and I decided to ride off from the 
suburbs as quickly as possible. I was not long in coming to another 
tributary of the Neuces river, where I stopped and broiled my jerked 
beef, staked my horse, and voluptuously reveled in another frontier 
repast. It was not my intention to make a long stop at this place; 
but as my horse seemed anxious to graze, I concluded to grant him 
the favor for an hour or two, and spread my blanket and lay down 
to rest. 

The next thing I knew, it was near sundown. I had dropped off 
to sleep, and had remained unconscious till six or eight hours had 
passed. I not only felt greatly refreshed, but felt very thankful that 
I had not been molested during my repose. The moon was on the 
wane, and would not rise until late in the night; but the weather was 
clear, and the prairies dry, and I rolled out for a night's journey. 
After crossing another small stream, and ascending the prairie be- 
yond, the moon made its debut on the eastern horizon. This was a 
much appreciated boon in my benighted condition. It was not long 
before my horse, by throwing up his head, and looking intently for- 
ward, notified me that he descried some object in front. As I was 
traveling down grade, the moon and skylight aftbrded me no assist- 
ance in perceiving the object. I approached within one hundred 
yards of two men, standing their horses in the road, before I was 
able to discern the object that had so intenttly attracted the attention 
of my horse. They turned right angle from the trail, and rode off at 
a brisk pace. I was not pleased at this movement, and felt a little 
unsafe; consequently I kept a vigilant eye upon them. After having 
passed them, I had the down grade upon them, which gave me the 
advantage of moon and skylight, and I could plainly see them at a 
considerable distance. They had stopped at about a hundred paces 
from the trail, and there remained until I had passed nearly out of 
sight. It was evident to me that they were bad meh, intent on 
some diabolical purpose; otherwise they would have met and passed 
me openly and boldly on the trail. I deemed it advisable to con- 
tinue my vigilance upon them. The prairie continued down-grade 
for several miles. After riding some distance, as I had expected, I 
saw two men approaching in my rear, some two hundred yards dis- 
tant. They could be seen at a greater distance, as the moon was 
well up, and they on the up-grade. My first impulse was to spur up 



38 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

my horse, and ride away from them. I rode off at a brisk gallop, 
but I instantly perceived that they simultaneously increased their 
rate of speed. I decided to increase my velocity, and take advan- 
tage of the first timber that I would come to. My horse, though 
jaded, was young, and of good size and speed, and I went off from 
them at a rapid rate. I was satisfied that they would con^nue to 
follow me up, and, sooner or later, I would be compelled to repulse 
them or submit to the dastardly outrages that they evidently had in 
view. In the course of a mile I came to a clump of mesquite bushes, 
immediately on the right of the trail. I wheeled my horse into 
them, and prepared my double-barreled shot-gun for active business. 
My horse was gentle, having been trained to hunting and shooting 
before I bought him. These qualities, together with his good form 
and speed, are what brought him into my possession. As my pur- 
suers were a little tardy in coming up, I was about to conclude that 
they had abandoned further pursuit. While I was on the make-up of 
this decision, my horse threw up his head, and pointed his ears to 
the rear. I knew that this indicated the proximity of active busi- 
ness. My position was about thirty paces from the trail, environed 
by mesquite shrubbery. Here they come in a brisk trot. My 
gun was leveled before they got opposite me, and as they came in 
range I untriggered the right barrel and down went the first horse, 
and off jumped his rider. Simultaneously jumped off, several paces, 
the second horse and rider. The dismounted man discharged his 
gun in the direction of my seclusion, but his missiles went far from 
their intended mark. He was shielded a little by the dense shrub- 
bery, but I untriggered my second barrel in his direction. By the 
time the smoke drifted away from my view, I discovered the dis- 
mounted man mounted up behind his companion, both making off 
across the prairie at a brisk pace. All this transpired in much less 
tima than it has taken me to write it. I recharged my gun and rode 
out to inspect the casualities, finding the horse wounded in the 
shoulder, and not able to rise to his feet. A few feet away lay his 
rider's hat. Having lost mine a few nights before, I thought this 
quite a valuable acquisition, and assigned it to the conspicuous 
position that of late my handkerchief had so prominently filled. 
The saddle was also better than my own, but I declined to take ad- 
vantage of an even swap in his absence. Time I deemed of more 
importance than saddle, as I thought they might return with re-en- 
forcements. This reflection, no doubt, had something to do in 
shaping my course of honesty in the saddle swap. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 39 

I rode away from the place across the plain eastward with as much 
git-up as I thought my horse would bear. After crossing another 
small stream the prairie spread out expansively eastward. I concluded 
that a little philosophy was now in requisition, and that I h^ better 
quit the trail and take the prairie, lest I might be followed up by my 
antagonist, or meet with similar parties. I met no more trouble 
during the night, except occasionally having to dismount and lead my 
horse across abrupt breaks and ravines. The morning dawned bright 
and clear and "old Sol's " red eyebrows again came blazing up from 
the eastern horizon in a most cheerful manner. About ten o'clock I 
noticed a diminutive shanty to my right, but, as I thought it might be 
a Mexican ranche, perhaps the identical home, or the home of friends 
to the party whose hat was sheltering my phiz, and I might be rec- 
ognized and the means of entrapping me into further difficulties, I 
gave it the go-by. About noon I began to see houses and farms at 
intervals both right and left, which evidenced my near approach to 
civilization. About three o'clock I rode on to a trail that showed 
the wear of wheeled vehicles. The sight of this inspired me with 
brighter hopes and more cheerful feelings. It was not long before I 
rode up to a house, respectable-looking for the frontier. I saw a 
clever-looking white man about the lot, and, approaching, addressed 
him with all the courtesy that my frontier trip had left me. He 
seemed a little tardy and loth to converse, and eyed me very closely, 
but on his inquiry from whence I originally came, he asked me if I 
knew certain men in Alabama and other places, to all of which I 
affirmatively gave satisfactory answers to him. He then told me that 
his name was Cargle, and that he was from Alabama, and very 
kindly invited me to dismount and rest up with him. This generos- 
ity I very readily and gratefully accepted — even more appreciatively 
than I can find adequate words to express. I remained several days 
with him. On delineating to him the route that I had come, he said 
that I had come through one of the most dastardly sneak-thieving 
dens extant, and that it was the greatest wonder to him that I ever 
got through alive. No tongue can tell, nor pen depict, the appalling 
horrors and thrilling commotions that vibrate through the mind of 
man while wandering through the labyrinth of such lonely and haz- 
ardous recesses as we have just gone through with, to say nothing of 
the extremely exhausting fatigue that unremittingly bears down upon 
him. 

It is very common, almost universally so, for young men on enter- 
ing the verge of business life to unrestrainingly indulge the ideal 



40 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

reverie, that fame, comfort, and affluence are only to be acquired by 
adventurous enterprise. Although I claim no heriditary relationship 
with Solomon, yet from my variegated experience I would unpresum- 
ingly suggest that nothing more detrimental in its final results could 
be entertained by you. In these ideal indulgences one compliance 
instigates and demands the acquiescence of an actor, until ere long 
you find yourself enveloped in a world of ideal bliss, the hopeful 
fruition of which coerces you to relinquish the home of your youth 
with all its bowery surroundings, the soothing smiles of the tender- 
est hearts on earth, and ere long precipitates you into those inflexible 
facts that will sportively detonate your fallacious fancies in a dis- 
gustful nothingness. 



CHAPTER IX. 

lieius of interest — Emigrants preparing for the frontier — A rugged 
ramble and scratnble over the hills and dales of the Rio-Frio 
river — Killed a huge Bear — A lonely, distnal and frightful night 
— Another day scrambling over hills — Stopped over night with a 
regular thorough-bred Mustang Fro7itiersman — Spent an inter- 
esting but unpleasant night — Bought Ponies from a Dutchtnan 
near San Antonio — Drove them to. the Brazos — Failed in selling 
them. 

AFTER resting several days with Mr. Cargle, I traveled east- 
ward. If I remember correctly, he said that he lived in 
Uvalde County, and that it was a waste of time and labor to 
try to make a living in that section by farming. The land is replete 
with vegetable food, but in summer, as a general thing, is destitute of 
rain, without which vegetation can never thrive. Except in extreme 
drouths, that section is well adapted to stock-raising. The native 
nutritious mesquite grass grows and thrives, overlaying the surface in 
dense profusion. 

I bid my benefactor, Mr. Cargle, adieu, and proceeded eastward. 
My first day's journey was over a tolerably smooth prairie ; I passed 
but one house during the day. Just before nightfall I began plainly 
to see the outlines of the rugged hills and mountain-breaks along the 
head-waters of the Rio-Frio river. I was told before starting on this 
trip that I would find a direct line across these hills tedious, toilsome, 
and in places impracticable, if not impossible. But old Hardy-hood's 
shallow-brain temerity thought he knew it all, and straightforward I 
went or rather intended going. About sun-down, the smooth plain 
over which I had traveled through the day broke off into an abrupt 
descent to the first tributary of the Rio-Frio river. Its dismal prog- 
nostics were not in the least inviting to a night's repose, but as myself 
and horse needed water I proceeded down the slope and found excel- 
lent water in the valley ; but the hideous surroundings were a little 
too diffident in their general aspect to warrant a safe lodging for the 
night. 

After watering my horse and filling my canteen, I returned to the 



42 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

plains in the rear, and there bivouacked for the night. My commis- 
sary department was well supplied by the generous hands of my late 
benefactor, Mr. Cargle. The night air was mild and balmy, entwin- 
ing its dewy robes around my wearied brow, with that solace that can 
only be enjoyed upon the plains. And myself and horse did rest 
and feast sumptuously. 

The morning dawned serene, and I was soon merging into the 
rugged and craggy hills and dales spread out before me. In order 
that the reader may better understand the state of affairs into which 
I was then about to enter, I will here inform him, that for lack of 
direct roads on the frontier, and the easy transit across the bald 
prairie, by the aid of a compass most travelers go direct to the point 
of destination. 

The head-waters of the Rio-Frio embraces a multitude of 
diminutive streams, sprangling out through a cluster of hills and 
valleys. In places are almost perpendicular precipices. It was not 
long before I had to dismount and lead my horse up-hill, and let 
out my lasso and drive down-hill. The greater portion of the way I 
had to precede my horse or succeed him. Walking, or rather 
scrambling, was the order of the route, and riding the exception. 
Late in the afternoon, as I was scrambling down an abrupt hillside 
through scrubby mountain-shrubbery, my horse suddenly plunged 
off down the hill, jerking the lasso from my hands in such an abrupt 
manner that I was at a loss to determine whether he slipped up and 
tumbled overboard, or was frightened at something. But he kept 
going, pell-mell, over rock and brush, until the lasso caught in a 
scrub-bush and stopped his precarious career. I at once started in 
pursuit ; but before I passed the spot from which he made his first 
plunge I discovered to my left, about ten paces away, a huge black 
bear, standing up on his hind feet, his forearms doubled up, woman- 
like when she is about to slap a naughty boy ; his mouth gaped 
wide open ; his scarlet tongue, jaws and snowy white teeth beauti- 
fully contrasting with his sooty black face. With more dispatch than 
a streak of greasy lightning I leveled the bead of old Hannah with 
my right eye upon that red spot so prominently set in midnight 
darkness, and instantly untriggered. Without unbeading, I set my 
finger on the next trigger ; but I saw it was needless to pull down, 
or he was sinking to the grojnd, bting at close range, the whole 
load entering his mouth and face. I went up to his prostrate body 
and examined his prominence. He seemed to me, as he lay at full 
length on the ground, to be very large and fat. I thought of the 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 43 

luscious bear-Steaks I had hitherto luxuriated on, and was tempted 
to get a bit for my supper. The hide I also coveted, but it was near 
night, and my horse was not yet safe in my hands. I also thought it 
quite likely that his mate, and perhaps other carnivorous blood and- 
thunder beasts, might be in the vicinity, and the odoriferous scent 
emitted from a broiled bear-steak might invite them to call around 
and participate with me, or, perhaps, for variety sake, upon me. 
With these hideous reflections, I concluded to go. I found my 
horse with lasso entangled in a bush. 

Darkness was now upon me, and dark indeed it was, I could not 
stay on that steep hillside, nor did I like to stay in the immediate 
vicinity of the dead bear. Not that I felt any apprehensions of his 
lifeless carcass, but felt a little dubious about the obstreperous cer- 
emony his comrades might demonstrate over his defunct remains. 
With these timid reflections, I scrambled down to the valley below, 
where I found water and a nice place to camp ; that is, it would 
have been very nice had it been any where else than in that dismal 
valley. I saw that grim fate was sealed, and that its iron-hearted 
destiny I must endure. I staked my horse, and gathered up some 
old dead brush-wood to make a light for the ostensible effect of 
keeping the carnivorous bloodsuckers at bay ; but, before I struck 
my match, I thought about the diabolical Indians and mountain 
bandits, whom, from late experience, I dreaded more than the wild 
beasts. For ought that I knew, my light might be seen many miles 
down the valley, and lead a more omnivorous enemy upon me. With 
these embarrassing forebodings hankering around me, I put my 
match away, got out my haversack and knawed awhile on smoked 
beef tongue and cold biscuit. After readjusting things, preparatory 
for active movements in case of an emergency, I buttoned up my 
overcoat, wrapped my blanket around me and hunched up beside the 
root of a tree, with my gun across my lap. I endeavored to employ 
all the soothing reflections that I could induce to while away the 
lonely monotony. As to sleep, whether I would or would not, cir- 
cumstances strenuously forbade. My first round of thoughts was 
on the many precarious ups and downs I had clodhopped over 
during the war between the States. I remembered with vivid emo- 
tion how often, while on Greenbriar and Cheat rivers in the Alle- 
ghany mountains, on dark and rainy nights, I filled my present 
attitude on a vidette post, vigilantly watching for the enemy. 
Occasionally my thoughts would rebound to " home, sweet home," 
with its bowery surroundings and pleasant associations. I had 



44 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

voluntarily relinquished these to gratify my capricious cravings for 
greatness achieved by adventure. 

And here I was now, liable at any moment to be torn asunder 
by wild, carnivorous, bloodthirsty beasts of the forest, or the more 
profligate brute claiming the respectability of man. After several 
hours pondering over subjects of this nature, I suppose about mid- 
night, or later, my horse suddenly bounded off with a snort equal 
to the whistle of a locomotive, and was only stopped at the ter- 
minus of a forty-feet hair lasso. It was so dark I could not see 
anything, nor could I hear anything. I had to pat and fondle my 
horse gently on the face and neck for some time before I could ap- 
pease his restive and intractable excitement. He finally quieted 
down, and as he seemed to notice nothing more through the night, 
I thought perhaps he heard a noise or growl upon the hill where the 
dead bear was, and having not fully recovered from the fright that 
he received in the evening, he scared up again. With this conclusion 
I repaired to my sentry post, and assumed the routine of my ram- 
bling thoughts. 

Daylight, after so long a lime, came tardily poking up the valley, 
though seeming more dilatory than usual. Its relief and cheerful- 
ness, under the embarrassing circumstances, rendered its return more 
than acceptable. My first concern was to look around the spot from 
where my horse scared up during the night, and, to my rather unex- 
pected discovery, I saw the footprint of a huge bear. Thought I, 
" Leaves have their appointed time to fall, and flowers to wither, but 
man is liable to fall at all times." I was early in my saddle and on 
my way eastward. This day was also spent in a rough, tumbling 
manner. I saw nothing during the day of more exciting interest 
than an ugly varmint about the size of a dog, called a catamount. 
He was perched upon the limb of a tree about thirty feet from the 
ground. His big savage-looking head exhibited anything but a 
pleasant aspect. I concluded to empty one barrel of my gun in his 
direction. My horse usually manifested no uneasiness at the dis- 
charge of fire-arms, but on this occasion behaved himself in a very 
restive manner. I could not account for this in any other way than 
that he had inhaled the obnoxious scent of the animal. 

I resorted to my Navy Six and deliberately sent a ball whistling 
up that way. This raised his bristles only. His head was a splendid 
target, but my horse was so restless and wigglesome that I could not 
hold steadily upon it. I discharged the second cartridge. This 
raised the cat's fiery indignation and bristles to the altitude of in- 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 45 

tolerable endurance. Porcupining every hair on his body, rising to 
his feet, hunching up his back, elevating his nubbin tail, with abroad 
grin he exhibited the most hideous set of teeth that I ever beheld. 
The idea occurred to me that the diabolical villain might leap off 
from that limb to my head, and I rod^ away. 

The evening of this day found me east of all the Rio-Frio tribu- 
taries, and in the vicinity of Castroville, in Ulenard County, where I 
put up for the night with a clever man, in his way. But the most of 
Eastern travelers would not admire his ways. 

On my arrival he scrutinized me up and down and all around with 
as much specific curiosity as an isolated American negro would have 
inspected a Bengal tiger. From the bustle and clamor a.bout the 
place, his family seemed to be prolific as well as interesting. Finally, 
supper was announced, when the whole retinue simultaneously bolted 
for the kitchen in a double-quick step, and I had the inadvertently 
accorded honor of bringing up the rear. The old gentleman, how- 
ever, had civility enough to reserve me a seat at his immediate right. 
But before I could take my allotted position, all hands, the old gen- 
tleman included, were promiscuously grabbing at the huge boiled 
beef bones with the voraciousness of young ducks gobbling up bran 
dough. However, the boil and the table were commensurate with 
his prolific and apparently famished retinue. 

After I was seated, I waited, as you Eastern folks understand, for 
manners. While I was waiting, the old gent obliqued his right eye 
upon me without unclinching his tooth grip on the gristle, with : 

" Are you sick ? " 

"No, sir." 

" Well, why don't you eat ? " 

With this appetizer, I seized a mutilated shank, and fell to gnaw- 
ing with as much vim and vivacity as the prevailing custom de- 
manded. 

After the table was pretty well denuded of its preponderant in- 
cumbrance, we were again seated in front, when the old gent pro- 
pounded two solid interrogatories, viz. : " Where'r you from ? 
Where'r you going ? " to which I responded commensurably. At 
this, he tapped the ashes out of his old clay pipe, and pointed to a 
room, and said : " You'll find a bed in thar," and he exodusted. The 
name of this gentleman I never learned. I saw no point at which I 
could venture an interrogatory. 

Next morning, after some well-matured preliminaries on my part, 
I succeeded in eliciting the information that over on Leon Creek, 



46 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

near San Antonio, I would find plenty of ponies. Feeling no 
further interest in the place or its inhabitants, I called for my bill, 
to which the old gent responded : 

" VVe'all, you may pay that to the old umman." 

To find her headquarters, a little strategy had to be employed. 
After some timid reconnoitering, I finally run up with her at the 
cow-pen. On making known the object of my invasion, she said : 

" What you bin paying tother folks es you come along?" 

As I had no desire to limit or restrict her price, I m^de an evasive 
answer, whereupon she said : 

" We'all, ez I hez the rumatiz, an' needs a little bitters, an' tha 
axes a dollar an' a half fur whiskey, you may give me that." 

I shelled out three eagle half dollars and exodusted with a dust 

This day brought me to Leon Creek, where I found a Dutchman 
desirous of selling ponies at very reasonable prices. I remained 
with him two days and made a purchase of twenty-three ponies, and 
employed a Mexican, by name Yeanchio, to follow in the rear and 
drive them up. I remember the sound of this Dutchman's name, but 
I never ventured the ri-k of a jaw dislocation in trying to pronounce 
it, and I will not here attempt to butcher up the English alphabet in 
an effort to spell it. 

On the third day I started out in the lead — ponies in the wake, 
and Yeanchio in the rear. I traveled by way of New Braunfels, San 
Marcos and Austin to a point on the Brazos river near port Sullivan. 
It was now spring-time, and the negroes were all out of money, and 
as they were about the only parties that ever bought ponies — the 
whites preferring good mules for farm-work, my pony speculations 
were badly nonplussed. I was at a great loss to determine what to 
do — if I sell to the negroes on credit, I may never see pony, pay, 
nor nigger again ; if I turn my ponies out upon the range to graze 
until fall, when the negroes by cotton- picking will be able to buy and 
pay for them, my ])nnies will scatter off and I will never find half of 
them again. While ruminating over this perplexing question, I met 
with Mr. A. M. Garrett, who was in about the same dilemma. He 
had about thirty ponies. Had I exercised a thimbleful of common 
sense, I could have easily seen in the ouiset that I could not place 
ponies on the market before spring, and then the negroes, who are 
about the only parties that ever buy such stock, would be out of 
money, rendering my enterprise an inevitable failure. But temerity, 
the most detrimental aitribute of the human heart, ever prevails with 
man, until experience, the parent of all human wisdom, bumps into 
him the real difference existing between facts and fancies. 



CHAPTER X. 

We met tvith a couple of men claiming to be direct from North-western 
Texas, reporti7ig the market for pony stock good — Thitherward 
we wetit — Preparatory arra?igements — Oiir line of march and 
retinue — Plain and Alpine scenery — Rip-roaring norther — Slippery, 
stickery mud — Suspicious characters visit our camp — Henderson's 
treachery — Sulphuric thunderbolting — Stampede — Left forlorn on 
foot — Weary retrogade movement — Footsore, hungry and 
thirsty — Reached my starting point dead-broke — Sequel worthy of 
consideration. 

AFTER floating around on the drifts of suspense for several 
days, Mr. Garrett and myself met up with two men claiming 
to be direct from North-west Texas, and calling their names 
Simpson and Henderson. They reported to us that we could readily 
dispose of our stock upon the frontier. "For," said they, "the 
Indians and horse thieves have denuded that section of ponies, but 
on account of the slow git-up of cattle they have taken but few of 
them away." They said we could get three or four good beef-steers 
for a good pony. According to this statement, which at the first 
glance seemed to be a plausible one, we concluded to drive our stock 
up there and barter our ponies for beef-steers, and drive the steers 
back to the Central railroad, which was then in process of construc- 
tion. There beef for hands was in great demand, realizing a net 
profit of three or four hundred per cent. The spring was now open, 
and the grass growing vigorously— our ponies would mend up on the 
way to the front, and our beeves fatten on the return trip. Of course, 
any one situated as we were, would. bite at such a bait. We concluded 
to drive off at once. My Mexican Yeanchio agreed to make the trip. 
Mr. Garrett had one hand, an old faithful negro, named Jeff, who was 
a good trusty cook. Upon further deliberation, we concluded to 
give Jeff the separate charge of the pack mules and commissary 
department, and employ another hand to fill his place as driver of 
stock. Mr. Garrett remembered while in conversation with Simpson 
and Henderson, that Henderson was going back to the front, was 
well acquainted there, and would assist us as guide and driver of 



48 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

Stock, if *we wished him to do so. The idea of employing him as 
guide and assistant driver of stock filled the vacancy in our retinue 
exactly. Mr. Garrett went forthwith and employed him. We were 
now in readiness for our tramp to the frontier. Mr. Garrett and 
myself rode in front, Henderson and Yeanchio in pursuit of ponies, 
and old Jeff with the pack mules in the rear — such constituted the 
march of our retinue. We had a very pleasant time in going up ; 
the weather, spring-like, was mild and balmy ; the grass was in 
waving green, and country sufficiently civilized to not give us any 
trouble. We went by way of Comanche, making Shackleford our 
first point of destination. Old Jeff was a remarkably clever old 
negro, and a good cook, unswervingly inclined the way the twig was 
bent. He was all care and watchfulness over his charge, in which 
he seemed to feel a great pride ; was always on hand at the right 
time, with a good broil and strong coffee, and many were the Jack 
Rabbits and prairie-chickens he broiled up in barbecued style on a 
wire rack which he carried along for the purpose. The order of our 
tramp was after the ponies grazed a while in the morning, to move 
forward steadily through the day until the middle of the afternoon, 
when we would halt at the first suitable place and let the ponies graze 
until morning. We agreed to take the post of sentiy through the 
night in routine, exempting old Jeff, on account of his separate and 
onerous duties. 

We generally had a prairie all the way, which was beautiful and 
pleasant. Especially did the scenery magnify in picturesque beauty 
and exquisite loveliness after passing Comanche. It is true that we 
would at intervals be plunged into labyrinths of scrubby mantled 
valleys, but this served the valuable purpose of breaking the 
monotony and preparing the eye to behold afresh the enrapturing 
landscape scenery that awaited it on the next plain. To ride at 
leisure over the unbroken green-sward on an extended elevated 
plain, fanned by the gentle zephyrs of balmy spring, and behold, in 
one circuitous chain stretched on the distant horizon, terrace after 
terrace of Alpine robes in living green, rising higher and higher in 
rolls and ridges, glimmering on aerial heights, beggars description at 
the point of my pen. 

Northwest Texas displays more attractive and beatific scenery for 
the rambling eye of man to gloat upon than can be found in one 
group eastward to the Atlantic. To truly realize its magnificent 
beauty, you most go there and behold it for yourself. Up to this 
time we had as mild and beautiful spring weather as heart could 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 49 

desire; but, from the appearance of the upper elements and the 
movements of the wind, we thought that they indicated a norther, 
and we turned into a valley that was sheltered on the north and west 
by a spur of the mountain, and there bivouacked for the night; 
and, as we expected, about midnight here the norther came, snort- 
ing and puffing in wild commotion from over the Rocky Mountains, 
but its fury and length of duration was not so great ar, its forebodings 
indicated ; yet a late emigrant from the East would have thought 
that a second deluge was upon the earth, executing its vengeance 
with the vehemence that desolated the vale of Sodom. By twelve 
o'clock next day the wind shifted to the east, breaking up and ele- 
vating the clouds to the upper current, which soon drifted them 
away. 

We resumed our tramp. The sun shone bright, and the elements 
were clear. Our journey for the next twenty-four hours was far 
from a pleasant one, for the surface of the plain was in a waxy 
wheat-dough state, the tramp of our ponies intermingling the 
the long grass-blades with the adhesive mud, forming long strings of 
tenacious dough, that clung to their feet, rendering their footsteps 
clumsy, clodhopping and wearisome. But the high south winds 
by the next day dried up the surface, and pleasantness again 
returned, refreshed by the shower. We soon passed the headwaters 
of Leon river, and run into the tributaries of the Clear Fork of the 
Brazos river. We here thought it advisable to go into camp, and 
look around and gather up all the information we could get from the 
few isolated inhabitants interspered through the country relative to 
bartering our stock. We now called upon our man Henderson for 
information about the surrounding country and people, as he had 
told us that he was acquainted in this section ; but he denied having 
any definite knowledge of the country or people, saying, in defence 
of his first report, that he had only passed through the country at 
some point, he did not know exactly where. This unexpected 
equivocation of his rather nonplussed our calculations, and while 
all hands were lolling around camp, two men rode up, claiming to 
be emigrants from Tennessee looking at the country. I noticed that 
they inspected our stock and personal equipments rather closely, 
but as they asked so many simple questions, indicating ignorance of 
the frontier, I attributed their inquisiiiveness to curiosity. After 
supper my Mexican Yeanchio privately intimated to me some doubt 
of the honest intentions of our late visitors. He said he noticed 
them passing some knowing glances at each other as they were 



50 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

looking around at our outfit, and he went on to intimate undue 
intimacy on the part of our man Henderson. I cautioned him to 
hold such suspicions to himself, for, if Henderson were to hear him 
making such remarks, he would be likely to account for it at the 
muzzle of a navy six-shooter. Yeanchio said no more, and I thought 
no more than that it was a Mexican freak of his, concocted to ingra- 
tiate himself into my favor; but Yeanchio, being raised on the frontier, 
between Texas and Mexico, was well prepared to judge of the inside 
character of such men, which was fully verified by later incidents. 

We all sat up late, discussing the state of affairs, and premed- 
itating our business programme. It was finally proposed to retire, 
Henderson at once proposing to take the sentry post, to which we 
readily assented, and all hands were soon in the land of oblivion. 
The next thing I knew I was abruptly jerked to my feet at the hands 
of Garrett,, with the wild exclamation, '' Mount your horse ; the 
Indians are upon us ! " By the time I could gauge my stupid eye- 
lids open, every pony and everybody was going and gone, harem- 
scarem, pell-mell, in every direction ; pistols and guns firing simul- 
taneously with whoops and yells ; lights and torches flashing and 
waving, emitting sulphuric odors sufficient to justify the impression 
that all the demons in Sulphurdom were turned out of their Satanic 
realms. My saddle-horse, with all the balance, was gone. I had 
presence of mind enough to pick up my blanket and gun and 
scamper off to a gully, and there squat for safety, and there I 
remained and nursed a chilly and nervous case of intolerable sus- 
pense until morning. 

At daylight I went back to camp, to survey the casualties and see 
what was left ; but the only trophies that were to be seen was old Jeff's 
hat and blanket. It was our custom on the frontier, before retiring, 
to saddle up our horses and pack-mules, preparatory for any 
emergency ; hence, went away everything with the stampeded stock. 
I sauntered around the field to see if I could discover any further 
evidence or effects of the stampede, since such, evidently, it was. 
I found nothing but one of the sulphur torches that had been used 
and dropped by the stampeders. I had often heard of the modus 
operandi and intention of a stampede, and I decided that my friends 
would not be likely to return ; and as the stampeders would be cer- 
tain to do so I had best get out of the suburbs as soon as possible. I 
did so by returning the route we came. I was on foot and without 
rations, but I was alive, and you know small favors should be thank- 
fully received. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 51 

As an itemized account of the mode and intentions of these din- 
bolical sta,mpeders, and by whom perpetrated, may be of interest to 
the reader, I will here give it. 

These raids are perpetrated by jay-hawking frontier bandits, who 
live in the mountains, by their purloining exploits in plundering 
every civilian that comes in their way beyond the pale of civiliza- 
tion. They will ride up with you on the road or visit your camp in 
a very unpretentious and innocent manner, purporting themselves to 
be emigrants looking at the country. The most of these men have 
been well raised in the old States and know full well how to deport 
themselves as gentlemen, and can assume this treacherous garb in a 
most becoming and unsuspecting manner. When they have learned 
all that they wish to know about your possessions and protection, 
they, in a very pleasant manner, will open the way for their depart- 
ure, leaving you, if not well versed in frontier tactics, under the im- 
pression that they desired. And sooner or later, at whatever time and 
place to them may seem most propitious for the easy accomplishment 
of their rapacious designs, they will return under cover of the shades 
of night and a masked face, equipped, besides the usual implements 
of warfare, with a bundle of rags thoroughly saturated with kerosene 
oil and pulverized sulphur, wrapped with wire and suspended to a 
pole ; each man is thus equipped. These thieves are linked in chain- 
gangs, and, oftentimes, the number assaulting you is more than com- 
mensurate with your number for defense. The hour of their attack 
is invariably at the dead hour of night, when you are asleep, and 
your herd quietly resting. They approach stealthily to your herd, 
and quickly ignite their sulphuric bundles, and go pell-mell, at full 
speed, on their horses, through your herd, waving their torches, yell- 
ing and whooping in the similitude of wild Indians on a buffalo 
chase. This abrupt and frightful scene, terrific noise and sulphurous 
odor, disseminated promiscuously in every direction, with the wildest 
commotion, would have an irrepressible tendency to startle and 
stampede the demons in the realms of sulphurdom, much less a puny 
bunch of mustang ponies and torpid liver speculators. 

As soon as the stampede is completed, they whip out their torch- 
lights on the damp grass, or abandon them, and scamper off to their 
seclusions, and there remain until you have left the- suburbs, when 
they go round and gather your stock and appropriate them to their 
own use and benefit. The morning dawns to disclose to you the 
appalling fact that your ponies are scattered for miles in every direc- 
tion, placing them and you in a circumstance impracticable, if not 



52 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

impossible, to ever collect them together again; and in the event that 
you should attempt to remain in that section and gather them up, 
these very men who stampede your stock for the identical purpose 
of gathering them up and appropriating them to their own benefit, 
seeing that your intrepidity was competing for the same object, and, 
unsuppressed, would terminate in their defeat, would not hesitate to 
waylay you, or assault you, under mask, and, with powder and lead, 
leave your lifeless body on the plains. 

Such is the character and habits of the rapacious bandits who 
reside beyond the pale of civilization, among whom it is extremely 
hazardous to go, unless you are, by disguise or force, able to repel 
their dastardly tricks. But as civilization advances, law and order 
drives them forward. 

We will now return to my lonely and disconsolate retreat home- 
ward. I had my blanket and fire-arms, but not one morsel of any- 
thing eatable, and a long, lonely tramp before me. I knew that on 
reaching Comanche county I would occasionally find houses along 
the road. But there was a long, wearisome tramp to be made before 
reacliing the first house. I remembered noticing houses at long in- 
tervals as I came up, but I also remembered that these frontier 
people had been so shamefully abused and deceived by hypocritical 
slinks in disguise, that however plausible my story might be, and 
however much disposed they might be towards sympathy and charity, 
I was not likely to meet with much clemency. I knew that I would 
not see any houses the first day, for we had not passed an}' for 
several miles as we came up. 

Late in the evening of the first day I became exceedingly hungry 
and fatigued, and crossed no water during the day. I remembered 
where we crossed the last tributary of the Leon river, but how far 
ahead it was I could form no definite idea. Besides being thirsty^ 
hungry, sleepy and fatigued, my spirits were sorely depressed at my 
incomprehensible disappointments. The weight of anxiety under 
which I was then struggling, seemed intolerable, and I fell down 
upon the green-sward. While prostrated, ruminating over my 
forlorn condition, struggling between soothing hope and agonizing 
despair, timidity and courage, Demosthenes came to my relief and 
confidingly whispered that the greatest glory of man was not in. 
never falling, but rising every time he falls, thereby exhibiting true 
courage and intrinsic merit equal to the emergency. I was further- 
more fully impressed than eternal perseverance was the price of ulti- 
mate success. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 53 

These stimulating reflections reanimated my desponding spirits to 
renewed and more vigorous effort in the extrication of my incon- 
siderate self from the dumpish and perilous predicament into which 
I had inadvertently precipitated. I was on my feet and moving 
forward ere I was aware of the prevailing influences that over- 
shadowed me. Thirst was my greatest torture. My throat was dry- 
ing up. I painfully felt that I must soon be relieved, or suffocate. 
All these things combined had a great tendency to enliven my foot- 
step and lighten my burden. I soon began to see stock along the 
prairie. I knew that this indicated the proximity of water and I 
pressed forward with greater vim. Finally I saw a dark profile on 
the horizon in front. I was solaced with the cheering hope that it 
certainly was the timber along the stream much desired. 

The shades of evening ere long threw their dismal mantle around 
me. The misty haze, spreading through the upper elements, be- 
nighted my surroundings with the intensity of the sooty side of 
midnight. 

There was no moon above the horizon, and the few stars that were, 
by their magnitude, able to penetrate the hazy robes that shrouded 
the elements, appeared like dingy specks retreating from the surface 
of a tawny autumn leaf. All this had but the invigorating effect of 
lengthening my strides with more animated velocity. I finally ap- 
proached quite near before my glorious deliverance was realized ; 
and I was soon by the brook imbibing and bathing in that solacing 
beatitude that opposite extremes only can afford. And here, amid 
dismal solitudes, I once more laid me down to sleep, wrapped in 
midnight darkness, oblivion, and a woolen blanket. And calm and 
sweet was that sleep. Not a ripple crossed my unconscious repose. 
Daylight was abroad upon the surrounding realms before I awoke. 
But as I arose, I felt greatly refreshed and more hopeful of my re- 
demption. 

As I had nothing to eat, I lost no time in eating it, but was soon 
on the high prairies shortening the distance by thirty-six inches at a 
pace between my yawning stomach and rations. 

About the time old King Sol's red eyebrows began to peep over 
the eastern hills, I descried a man on a mule about half a mile to 
my left. I hastened out my spy- glass, and to my incomprehensible 
delight and unutterable joy, I recognized old Jeff on one of our 
pack-mules making directly towards me in a gallop. It was but a 
few moments when he was beside me. 

Notwithstanding I had great cause to rejoice at meeting with him, 



54 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

he seemed overjoyed and the happiest negro I ever saw. His story- 
was, that he was asleep when the stampede broke loose, and the first 
thing that awoke him was Mr. Garrett dragging him by the heels 
across the camp hallooing : " De injuns is 'pon us ! " Bless your soul, 
boss, I couldn't see nuffin ner do nuffin. I didn't know which 
wer best, ter brake an' run, or drop on my knees an' pray de good 
Lord to sabe us from 'struction ; for clar ter you, boss, 'fo' de Lord, I 
tho't de debel wus turn loose an' bustin' up de whole cr'ation ; furde 
ponies were guine in ebery way, an' ter save my karkis from 'struc- 
tion, dis nigger got away too. 

Upon further inquiry, I learned that Jeff ran off a mile or two and 
halted until morning, when he descried one of the pack-mules graz- 
ing on the prairie. He caught it, mounted, and rode off direct west- 
ward. He soon discovered that the mountains were looming up in 
front, and it was only then that he noticed that he was going west 
instead of east, which caused him to about face and retract east- 
ward, otherwise he would have, ere long, run into either the Apache 
or Lapon tribes of Lidians. 

This confusion on his part was a fortunate circumstance, otherwise 
he would have been so far ahead that I never could have overtaken 
him. 

The mule had in his pack saddle two canvas hams and a bushel or 
more of crackers, from which I replenished that irritating void that 
was giving me so much distress. 

After enjoying a hearty repast, I proposed to old Jeff to go back 
and look after our friends, but Jeff vehemently protested, saying, 
" No, nebber, boss, in dis world is dis nigger guine back dat way 
no mo. Ise quine home, I is." 

As I was not very anxious to return to the calamitous scene, we 
rolled out eastward, riding the pack mule by turns, and as Jeff was 
now hatless, as I once had been, I knew how t > sympathize with him 
and gave him my handkerchief to cover his frosty wool. All things 
considered, we fared sumptuously until we got down into Comanche 
county, when one day it came Jeff's turn to ride, and as he was get- 
ting ready to mount, the mule stepped on his toe. Jeff gave him an 
abrupt gauge in the flank and away went the mule flitting across the 
prairie with all our rations and my blanket and gun, and never did 
we see or hear from that mule again. 

We continued our lonely tramp until late next evening, when Jeff" 
opened out with : " Boss, whats we guine ter do ? Nuffin ter eat, an' 
no folks 'long dis road." 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 55 

I cheered up the old fellow as well as I could, and by night we 
reached a spring branch, where we found three men camped for the 
night, claiming to belong to Armstrong's ranch, returning thither 
with some strayed off stock. They had rations and whiskey, which 
they very generously divided between us. I saw that the whiskey 
had a winning effect on Jeff. Furthermore, they had extra horses 
that they were leading along back to their ranche. Jeff made con- 
siderable inquiries about their ranche and the chances for a cook's 
situation, all of which he was encouraged in by the ranchemen. 

I saw that I was going to lose Jeff, and as he had hitherto been 
faithful, I recommended him as a good cook and an honest gentle- 
man, which secured for him a horse to ride and the promise of a 
good situation at their ranche. And the party, including Jeff, left 
me, and T was again all alone on the lonely prairie. 

I continued to plod along for several days, and as I knew the people 
were a little timid about taking a man to lodge for the night, espe- 
cially a man on foot as I then was, lest he and their best horse might 
be missing in the morning, I made it a point to trouble them only 
for rations, which, to their credit I can say, they were not slow in 
supplying me. I suffered for water more than anything else. The 
weather was warm, the creeks dried up, and in places it was quite a 
long stretch between houses. I finally reached the suburbs of the 
Brazos, near my starting point, sore footed and sore all over, and as 
badly bunged up in feelings and appearances as an old towel that a 
yard calf had been chewing all night. 

The history of this e.xpedition would be incomplete without an 
account of its other members. This information I did not receive 
until two or three years afterwards, when I met Mr. Garrett at Fort 
Worth. 

He said that Yeanchio was the first to discover the raiders, and 
woke him up. Their first impulse was to secure their horses, and 
before he could arouse me from slumber, the raiders were going pell- 
mell with their sulphuric torches through the herd, and dashed 
through our camp, causing the saddle horses and pack-mules to de- 
camp. He said as they passed near our camp, Yeanchio opened fire 
upon them with his six-shooter. He and Yeanchio followed this up 
until the raiders turned upon them in full force, and chased them for 
two or three miles in a running fight. He said, our man Henderson 
was not seen during the stampede by him nor Yeanchio, nor since 
that time ; and that he felt more than satisfied that Henderson 
slipped out of camp after we retired, and, Judas like, had given us 



56 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

away ; and that he also felt assured that Henderson and Simpson, 
the man that was with Henderson the day that he employed him to 
go with us, were both members of the stampeding party, having gone 
down into civilization to spy out subjects for their diabolical rapacity 
to prey upon. That the plot was by these two men prematured, and 
the tempting bait systematically set before us to decoy us off and 
rob us of our stock. And that Simpson preceded us to his com- 
rades, and that the parties who visited our camp the evening of the 
stampede were sent in to our camp by Simpson to spy out the state 
of affairs and prepare Henderson for their work. And that Yean- 
chio was not deceived in his suspicions of Henderson and these 
men. 

Mr. Garrett said that after the raiders ceased to chase him and 
Yeanchio, they thought it advisable to get away as quick as possible, 
for if Henderson was leading the raiders, that he would not hesitate 
to sacrifice the lives of us all, in order to effectually shield his own 
treacherous guilt. 

Mr. Garrett said that he found Yeanchio faithful, truthful, and 
honest, which is a remarkable trait for that class of people, and that 
he went with him to Mexico and kept him in his services for more 
than a year. 

I would here call the attention of my young readers to the very 
important and inflexible facts demonstrated on the ruins of falla- 
cious ideal fancies, and would kindly suggest that we never be too 
considerate in our reflections on all subjects that have a tendency to 
effect or involve our personal responsibilities. Had I exercised a 
thimbleful of common sense, I would not have relied so implicitly on 
the precarious reports of an absolute stranger. Hence, I would 
have been spared this intolerable intricacy and have avoided this 
catastrophe in bankruptcy. But 

Experience hath a wondrous treasure ; 
Its fathoms we can never measure. 

I was now financially dead- broke, too dead to resuscitate, and as 
there seemed to be but a nickel's difference between the laboring 
man and the loafer, and that the loafer generally had the nickel, 1 
concluded to try my hand at loafing, at least until something better 
turned up. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Found loafing unprofitable — Profitable engagement as patent medicine 
agent — Its rustic and romantic nature — Anticipated censure — A 
visit to a pioneer Texan — Twelve months without bread — Jerked 
beef — General proclivities^ manners^ habits^ etc., of old Texans — 
Sotne exceptions — Rainfall, game — Forest and domestic items — 
Characteristic negr oology — Frolic with wolves. 

IT is now spring of 187 1, and in compliance with my adopted 
policy in the close of the last chapter, I have been professionally 
engaged for several months. But I find that the nickels are not 
so plentiful as I first anticipated, nor do I find the vocation as con- 
ducive to health as I could desire, inasmuch as it has a great ten- 
dency to diminish one's defense against pneumonia and like diseases. 
But, by the way, I have met up with and entered into a business con- 
tract with a Mr. Jemison, claiming headquarters at New Orleans. 
His business was the compounding and selling patent medicines, 
the right for which he claimed to have bought from a Dr. Somebody, 
a Frenchman, in New Orleans, La. The definite points in these 
representations it was not my business nor inclination to investigate, 
the clean, clear cash that I could extract from it was the only heal- 
ing influence it had with me. His proposition to me was that he 
would put his skill and capital against my skill and labor as selling 
agent, and that we would divide the proceeds from my sales equally 
between us, I to furnish my own transportation and expenses. This 
so-called medicine was in liquid form and put up in two-ounce vials, 
with a blandishing label all over and around them, elucidating in 
glowing bombast its all-healing and soothing effects on every pain, 
ache and gripe incident to the human family, from a thorn under 
your nail to the most frantic case of bilious cramp colic. It had the 
color of red cinnamon drops, scent of sassafras, taste of pepper- 
mint, and, I guess, virtue of common pepper sauce. The labelled 
price was one dollar per ounce, at which I generally sold it. Some- 
times in settling a night's lodging, or a fellow's pile was a little be- 
low the standard price, I would deviate a little, calling his special 
attention to the point that I did so at a great sacrifice for his special 



58 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. \ 

benefit. My boss casually informed me that the component ingre- 
dients in its make up, vial, label and all, cost him less than twenty- 
five cents per ounce. I would not here disclose the confidence he 
then reposed in me, but he did so at his option, exacting no obliga- 
tion from me. Furthermore, in a few months after my engagement 
with him, I heard that he had to skedaddle to Mexico on account of 
some scaly tricks he had previously perpetrated, and that his name 
Jemison was an alias. 

However, I never wished the man any harm, nor did I try in any 
way to do him any. I have always entertained a feeling of kindness 
towards him, for my engagement with him, in selling his Painacheum 
drops, resulted in a respectable rise in my dilapidated pecuniary 
affairs. In offering these Painacheum drops for sale, I was often in- 
terrogated about its virtue. I invariably pointed to the label, and 
stated that I knew nothing of its component elements or intrinsic 
merits, and that I was only an agent employed in selling it ; that I 
never had occasion to test its effects. All of which was strictly true. 
At the same time, however, if such occasion had been offered, I 
doubt the probability of my having used it, for I entertained from 
the outset an uncompromising contempt for what I regarded as its 
medical worthlessness. Very often my customers, on failing to elicit 
their desired information, would ask, as a last resort, if my medicines 
had given general satisfaction so far as I had sold them. To which 
I invariably replied that I had heard no complaint of their short- 
coming. This was also strictly true. But I guess the reason was 
that I never went back the same road. 

Some of my Pharisaic readers may think that my own hide, as 
well as that of my proprietor, needed a currycomb, but they should 
remember that I was employed only as salesman, and knew nothing 
of its medical virtues or component elements. Nor did I assume to 
represent it in any way, invariably leaving that job to the face of the 
lab3l,Vhich was on when I received it. Nor do I know even to this 
day whether or not it possessed medical virtue, but merely speak 
condemnatory in accordance with my first and last impression, 
prompted by common reasoning. Furthermore, my fault-finding 
reader should remember that the infirmities of the human family are 
very great, and their perfections few, and that there are none of us 
so righteous that we can afford, without self-condemnation, to be un- 
charitable to the common errors incident by nature to us all. Yet 
many of us — 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 59 

" From lessons, studied long, 

Gather courage, strength, and will, 
To battle onward, right or wrong. 

Through pleasure bright or fortune ill." 

My first peddling totir was in the great Brazos bottom, commencing 
■near Waco and thence downward through several counties to the 
mouth of the Navasota river. The inhabitants of the Brazos bot- 
tom are a monopoly of negroes. You will find perhaps fifty negroes 
to one white man. They instinctively have quite a capricious 
admiration of and abiding faith in all peddlers and transient agents, 
especially if one is diked in a suit of Yankee blue. He can sell 
them anything, at any price, and no questions asked, except how to 
use it. My harvest through this bottom was quite a lucrative one. 
I seldom passed a family that did not take several vials of my all- 
healing painacheum drops, and the families were disseminated 
throughout the entire bottom as densely as tawny leaves in an 
autumn forest. As I have in previous chapters treated this bottom 
on its agricultural fertility, with all due notice I will omit further 
■notice here. 

As I had a desire to survey the general prospects in the 
•south-eastern portion of the State, I left the Brazos near the town 
of Navasota in Grimes county, and traveled worm-like through all 
the eastern counties, selling my painacheum drops to nearly every 
family. I would sometimes meet with some salty rebuffs, but not 
more internally effective than pouring water on a goose ; it would 
roll off as fast as put on. In my rambles through this section I met 
a very old pioneer lady by the name of Cobb, whose story I think 
worth relating. 

She emigrated to Texas while in her teens, with her own family 
and two others, in the memorable days that General Sam Houston 
drove Santa Anna and his vandal hordes from the country. The 
three families settled near the Navasota river, isolated by a long dis- 
tance from any other family. The Indians migrated hither and 
thither throughout the country, but were friendly towards the -whites. 
There were no Mexicans in that section at that time. Wild Spanish 
■cattle and horses, buffalo, antelope, deer, turkey, wolf, bear and 
many other native small game roamed the country at will. Meat 
was no object. Salt to season and preserve it was the only object 
worthy of consideration. As they had to go below Corpus Christi, 
several hundred miles to get it, and then transport it back home on 
ponies, wheat or other small grain was never seen in that section in 



60 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

those days. As to corn, very little was required, only for bread, 
which they had to pound up into meal in a metallic mortar. There 
were no mills in that section in that day. The unbounded range 
furnished meat in superabundance. She said that one year they 
went from June until corn was made, and matured the next year, 
without bread, not one drop of rain having fallen that year from 
February to Christmas. Their little corn patch dried up in the 
drouth. About June they gathered the few dwarf nubbins, selected 
the best, and put them away for seed, and on the refuse nubbins 
they made a Ho-cake as a farewell to bread. The next bread that 
they tasted was when corn was ripe the next year. 

This account being rather astonishing to me, I inquired in what 
way they subsisted. She said they would pound up in a metallic 
mortar, dried jerked beef and knead it with fine chopped fresh meat, 
and bake it or cook it pudding-like, which made a very palatable and 
nutritious diet. 

I thought truly is necessity the parent of invention. As a great 
many may not know what jerked beef is, I will give a short elucida- 
tion : 

They kill a beef in summer and slice it up in very thin strips, and 
hang the strips without salt out in the sun and wind on ropes or 
otherwise, and let them dry. They are soon shrivelled up into a 
crisp, and if put away in a dry place where the wind can play upon 
them, they will remain sound, fresh, and all right for a long time. 
This mode of preserving summer beef is very common at this day 
among old Texans, many of whom I found in my rambles through- 
out the State, who are tenaciously hinged to their former habits, 
tastes, manners, and opinions, and to ingratiate yourself with them,. 
you must adopt to the letter their views and habits in general. They 
don't take to the late emigrant very magnetically. If the emigrant 
is honest and industrious and knows how to stay at home and attend 
to his own business and let other people and their business alone, 
they don't object to his citizenship, but when you come to indi- 
vidual intimacy of family association, they don't want any in them. 
Several emigrants have said to me that they have lived in sight of 
old Texans for several years, and that the lady members of the 
families had never got acquainted. 

As a general thing, the old Texan entertains a great aversion to 
anything in the way of bombast blandishment, Sunday fixing, or 
anything that can be dispensed with, and it is with great repugnance 
that they will tolerate it at all. But when you will pull off your coat. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. bl 

roll up your sleeves, and unbutton your collar in accordance with the 
precepts of old Mr. Fogg in the days of yore, then, and not until then, 
are you recognized as one among them. You can generally tell when 
you are approaching one of their domiciles, by seeing the backyard, 
kitchen, hor.se and cow lots, pig pens and chicken roosts, adorning 
the space between the house and the road; and if you should chance 
to see a brawny looking fellow with long frizzly hair lolling down his 
shoulders over a striped shirt, and brown duck pants, loitering 
around, fumigating a cob pipe, you have him spotted, and you had as 
well ride on by, for you are not likely to be received, especially if 
you have on store-bought clothes. 

To be explicit in this narration, I must say that you will occasion- 
ally meet some old resident and native families, who have changed 
front to the rear, and have fallen into the procession of modern pro- 
gress, who will receive and treat you with all the complacency at 
their command, and at their fixtures and commodities you will have 
no cause to complain. But such are the exception and not the rule. 
The country south and east of the Brazos and Navasota rivers pre- 
sents more of an undulating appearance until you approach the 
coast, when it sinks to an almost unbroken plain. This section is 
the lumber yard of Texas. It abounds in some of the most extensive 
long-leaf yellow pine forests that I have ever seen. The man that 
can't find tar and pine knots in this section to suit his taste and 
-domestic wants, must certainly be avaracious in the extreme. While 
the pine is largely in excess of other timber, it has not an absolute 
monopoly, for the streams and many plots between them are diver- 
sified with oak, hickory, cypress, and many other species of timber. 
As to rain fall in this section, it is more generally diffused at intervals 
in time when needed, than any other portion of the State. While 
most of these lands are fair farming lands, they are not so fertile by 
a considerable discount as the broad river bottoms and black prairies 
north and west of them. Yet, I believe a man can make a better 
living and do it easier and see more rollicking home fun in southeast 
Texas, than he can in any other section of the State. Deer, turkey, 
fish, and other small game in many places are at your taking. I have 
often seen at one sight, as I rode through these pine flats, from ten to 
forty deer in a herd, quietly nibbling at the tender buds and grasses; 
nor were they at all skittish, for I would often ride within ten paces 
of them. Some of them would throw up their thorny-looking heads 
and hop off a few paces, exhibiting the white side of a nubbing 
appendage, as though they were playing the courtesy at my informal 



62 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

debut. In many places there are long intervals between farm houses, 
consequently the deer and other game have their native liberty to 
roam and loiter at will, unmolested by man or his track hound. 
Hence their gentleness. 

Late one evening I arrived at Cold Springs, the capital of 
the new county of San Jacinto. Before entering the suburbs 
I could hear a boisterous uproar going on in the place. On my 
entrance I saw about an acre and a half of solid negro wool perched 
on negro heads that were brimful of of crackbrain whiskey. I had 
hitherto thought that I had seen on Mumpford's prairie negro bum- 
kindom displayed to perfection, but I must confess that this filibus- 
tering tumult transcended all the hitherto bombastic niggerisdom 
that I had seen. It was only by the well-balanced sagacity of Colonel 
Cleveland, in his intrepid interposition, that the commotion was 
quelled. 

If my memory serves me correctly, this Colonel Cleveland was an 
emigrant there from Dallas County, Alabama, and to him and kin- 
dred spirits must be accredited the great improvements fostered in 
law and order about the place since that day. Near this place I 
struck the Trinity river, and reaped another lucrative harvest in sell- 
ing my Painacheum drops. 

Just after crossing to the east side of the Trinity, I had a lively 
little frolic with some wolves. I noticed them chasing a calf several 
hundred yards away. As I approached near them I saw that they 
had the calf prostrated. My Navy Six was all the available imple- 
ment of warfare that I had along with me. As I rode up near them,. 
one of the wolves scampered off to the brush. But the other tena- 
ciously clinched his throat-grip upon the calf. My pony was any- 
thing but gentle, and I could not spur him up as near as I wished, 
and, lest I might lose my opportunity, I opened fire on them, but 
with no perceptible effect, until the fourth shot penetrated the spine 
of one of them. My pony became so restive and intractable that I 
had to let him go away, lest he might, in his e.xasperated frenzy, pitch 
me off and leave me. In about a mile I came to a house and 
reported my exploit, which very readily secured me a night's lodging, 
with the understanding that I would go back after supper with my 
host and assist him in putting out poisons. On getting back to the 
battlefield, we found my wounded wolf unable to get away, and we 
expedited his effort with another ball. Evidence of other voracious 
animals were quite palpably seen on the body of the calf. No doubt 
they were still in the immediate vicinity, having scampered off at our 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 63 

approach. The poison was lavishly applied to the torn flesh of the 
calf, and we returned to the house. My host reported at breakfast 
next morning that he had gone back at daylight and found three 
wolves stone dead. Breakfast over, I bid my host adieu and took 
the road leading to the famous Sour lake of Texas. The peculiarities 
of this lake, its surroundings and widespread notoriety, renders it 
worthy of notice in these pages, which will be made in the following 
chapter. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mineral waters — The great pineries and mills — Ramble northward — 
Items of interest on the way. 

THE famous Sour lake of Southeast Texas lays claim to some 
peculiarities worthy of notice. If I remember correctly, it 
is located near the southern boundary of Harden county, 
some eight or ten miles from the New Orleans railroad, and about 
sixty miles east from Houston. Its immediate locality is in a grove 
of oaks. The country around about is comparatively level, and 
equally divided bet\Veen prairie and timber. A man naturally inclined 
to sport with a gun can here find a field replete with a variety of 
game upon which he can at will indulge his sportive proclivities to 
his heart's content, all the way up from a jack road rabbit to a huge 
black bear. Fishing is also splendid in the bayous near by. The 
hotel at the lake will amply verify the abundance of game, as you 
will, according to season, find the table heavy laden with a good 
variety, done up in the various styles and suited to the most fastidious 
tastes. 

This lake is a round pond of sour water, ranging from two to six 
feet deep, and covering, I guess, nearly two acres. The bottom of 
the lake has a hard surface, very commodious to bathers, as it will 
not muddy. The water is continually bubbling up, caused by gas 
escaping from the earth beneath. Nothing lives in this lake except 
a small bug. I have often seen the same species of bug playing in 
many ponds or tanks in various sections of the State. I was told 
that fish, snakes, frogs, &:c., would die immediately if put into this 
lake. Ducks often float on its bosom, exhibiting no perceptible 
effect. 

This sour water is said to be a great auxiliary to a debilitated or 
dyspeptic stomach, increasing the appetite and promoting digestion. 

The most remarkable features that are claimed by many who visit 
and write about this lake and its concomitants, is the diversified 
nature or quality of the water in the many little wells in close prox- 
imity. Around this lake, I think the latest reports has the number 
of different and distinct qualities of water up in the teens. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 65 

I have never scientifically studied geology or mineralogy, nor do I 
lay claim to any specific knowledge of either, but common native 
reasonology, based on natural causes and results, leads me to the 
conclusion that there are but two distinct qualities or kinds of water 
at or about this lake. I think the mistake that many people make in 
classifying these waters is in the error they make in attributing the 
different grades of the same water to distinct qualities or kinds of 
water. As to the number of wells around this lake, you can get 
almost as many as you will dig holes for. The surface seems to be 
saturated with water. Many of these wells are in the same ebullient 
condition as the mother lake. This identity in quality, though vary- 
ing a shadow in grade, can be easily traced to the same fountain 
head. 

The other class of water is found in the little wells around the 
lake. It has a strong alkaline or tar taste, and its surface is covered 
over with a sheet of petroleum. The different amounts of this 
petroleum that exude from the earth with the water at different 
places, giving different grades to the same component elements, I 
think, will account for the variety and distinction claimed for the 
multifarious distinctive waters. 

The ideas that I have advanced are based on the following facts: 
Petroleum floats on the surface of the water, at the tar springs in 
Burnett county; it appears again in the southeast of Williamson 
county, and in various places along the line of the Northern Rail- 
road. Again, a few miles northwest of Sour lake, and right at Sour 
lake. Again it apears southeast of Beaumont; again at Sabin Pass 
it floats upon the water; again below Sabin Pass it floats on the water 
to such an extent that a bay there is called the oil bay of the Gulf. 
The water is so heavy laden with oil, that the waves have but little 
effect. I think the foregoing facts are amply sufficient to account 
for the different grades of the same water. 

After leaving Sour lake I traversed the great southeastern pineries 
of Texas, and at a later date I visited some of the leading mills 
which are the lumber marts of the State. Some of these are of mag- 
nificent proportion as well as interest. On my first visit to that 
section, in the early days after the war between the States, I found 
all business enterprises greatly demoralized, and not until within the 
last few years did this section begin to develop its unlimited resources 
in the lumber and shingle business. Its exhaustless forests abound 
in long leaf yellow pine and cypress. Of late years brains, enter- 
prise and capital, have taken hold on this native store of wealth, and 



66 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

magnificent results are to be palpably seen, looming up in lucrative 
returns on money and labor expended. 

While this branch of business far exceeds anything in its line that 
I know of within the State, it has not, by upwards of many degrees, 
attained its full growth. Supply and demand being the main spring 
to upward and onward progress, its future greatness is permanent 
and secure. The supply in crude material will be for generations ta 
come inexhaustible. The demand for these supplies, emanating as 
they do from boundless bleak and barren prairies Westward for 
hundreds of miles, will render the progressive greatness of this lumber 
business a fixed perpetuity. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Further rambles North and West — A deceitful snare skillfully laia to 
entrap and rob me — My purse and filchers missing — Fruitless 
search for them — General items of importance — Hedge and stone 
fencing — Scarcity of timber — Shertnan and its importatice — Mono- 
poly of capital — Hints to the unwary. 

HAVING sold out my crop and closed up my business affairs in 
Cherokee County, my roving proclivities led me to further 
rambles. I went by way of Kicapoo into Henderson County. 
When I got within about ten miles of Athens, the capital of Hender- 
son County, I rode up to two civil looking men seated on the road- 
side eating their dinner. I halted and inquired the way and dis- 
tance to Athens. They very politely answered all my inquiries, and 
in the meantime remarked that they were going to Athens, having 
been summoned there as jurymen for that week in court, and neigh- 
bor-like they invited me to dismount and take a luncheon with them, 
we would all then go on together to Athens. Their civilty in every 
way led me to think that I had run into a streak of good luck, and 
accordingly I dismounted. While there one of them asked me if I 
could give him change for twenty dollars. As I thought it now my 
turn to show an accommodating disposition, I readily did so. Much 
as I had hitherto been hoodwinked into dark ways and diabolical 
tricks, it afforded me no light in this instance. We were soon 
mounted and on the way to Athens, arriving there just after dark. It 
being court week, the place was flooded over with people attending 
court, and otherwise. The hotel was flooded over, and it seemed 
that we were not likely to find a place to lodge for the night. One 
of my companions, after some rambling around, returned and reported 
that we could get our horses fed at a wagon, by a man who had for- 
age, and that we could lunch around town, and sleep on our blank- 
ets in the court house. 

This programme seeming to be the only alternative, I went with 
them. As there was considerable stirring around town, it was late 
before we retired ; but we finally did so, and in the morning I awoke, 
not only to find my companions gone, but my purse also. I at once 



68 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

Started out in search of them. I went first to the wagon where we 
left our horses. On my inquiry, the man at the wagon said, "Those 
two men that came here with you returned during the night and rode 
their horses away." I inquired if he knew them. "No," said he, 
*' I never saw them before." One of these men told me his name 
before we came to town, but as it was an uncommon name, I could 
not recall it again. But no doubt it w^as an alias. I made diligent 
search for them for two days, but no intelligence of them could I 
ever procure. They were evidently frontier thieves, prowling around 
in search of a victim. This they easily found in my inconsiderate 
self. Their object in asking me to make change for them, was evi- 
dently to see if I had money, and where about my person I kept it. 
All this seemed very evident after they were gone, but of all things 
the most unsuspected in the outset. Some of my readers may be 
ready to say that I acted very indiscreetly ; but to such I have only 
to say that if our fore sights were only half so perceptible as our 
hind sights, we would be a wonderful people. Solomon's wisdom 
would have faded into insignificance long, long ago. These sneak 
thieving slinks along the frontier know full well how to demean them- 
selves acceptably in any society. They are the very best judges of 
human nature, having made it a life-long study, and can very soon 
weigh a man and locate his person. A late report of the Attorney 
General of the State of Texas computes the number of fugitives 
from justice at six thousand. About one thousand of these are for 
murder, the remaining five thousand for thieving and kindred 
offences. I think I would be safe in saying, that not half of the 
frontier thieves have yet been discovered. Hence it behooves every- 
one traveling on the frontier to fortify himself with eternal vigilance. 
From Athens I traveled northward by Kaufman, Dallas and Sher- 
man. After leaving Athens you enter upon the high rolling prairies 
of North Texas, and as you go the waves and swells rise higher and 
higher, in undulations of graceful and beautiful scenery, and each 
eve, as the sun, amid the scarlet robes of his flaming glory, recedes 
beyond the Western horizon. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A ramble up and down Red rwer — Diversity of soil and productive- 
ness — Items of general interest to the contemplative emigrant — A 
tour through the Indian Territory — Items of general interest — 
Habits, tnanners and style of Indian life — A pretty, intelligent 
and civilly disposed Indian girl — Her hospitality and presents 
to me — Prominent traits of Indian character — General appear- 
ance of the country — Return to Texas. 

BEFORE I left the vicinity of Sherman, I traveled over the adja- 
cent sections up and down Red river. I had no other object 
in view but to appease a roving curiosity and gain information 
of the country and its varied inhabitants. The Indians, though tame, 
so-called civilized and accustomed to the white man, I found a little 
shy and diffident. I saw a few white men among them, and I often 
thought from these specimens that the Indian was somewhat justifi- 
able in his want of confidence in the pale face. These men, to all 
appearances, were as devoid of white principles as they were of white 
associates. I felt that my safety would be more secure in the hands 
of the red than the white man. 

Where I crossed the Washita river, the ferry was kept by a 
white man. His deportment and general appearance gave me 
more uneasiness than any other man that I met in that country. 
I asked him if I could ford the stream. He said, " If you are a good 
swimmer you might risk it," leaving the impression that the channel 
was deep. I asked him his charges for ferrying me over, and he 
said " five dollars." I told him that I would risk swimming my horse 
through before I would pay that price. He saw that my determins- 
tion was bold and solid, and he commenced coming down in his 
price, and finally got as low as fifty cents, which I paid him. As we 
went across, it was all that he could do to float his diminutive craft 
over the shallow water. I don't think any part of the stream was 
over three feet deep. But he had the best of me by four bits, and 
as he was at home and I was not, I concluded that a little mute 
philosophy was better than an outburst of bravado. On landing, he 
wanted to examine my navy six and everything else about me. Evi- 



70 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

dently to pave the way to a robbery. 1 saw that I would be 
compelled to discourage his impudent intrusions, and I abruptly rode 
away from him. 

I had by this time been long enough among the frontier roughs to 
learn something of their inside character and outside tactics. A 
thorough knowledge of these is indispensable to your safety while 
among them. After getting over into the Chickasaw nation, my 
rations began to diminish, so low, that I thought at the first Indian 
villa I would make an effort to replenish. The most of these villas 
are quite small, only a few shanties clustered together. I generally 
found them near a stream of water. At one of these villas I halted 
in the afternoon for the purpose of getting water and replenishing 
my rations. I had ridden all day without crossing water, and was 
quite thirsty. As I rode up to the shanties, several old squaws made 
their appearance, and a herd of children loitering around the place. 
I looked around for men. Presently, a huge old man came poking 
out with a greasy buckskin sack or coat on, and a fantastic foxskin 
cap perched over his pumpkin-looking face, with the long, bushy tail 
trailing over his shoulders; around the brow was some beautifully 
arranged rows of various colored beads, in imitation of a wreath 
of vines and flowers. Though badly abused by use, the workman- 
ship exhibited some skill and taste. The old fellow was rather tardy 
in approaching me, and, as I thought under the circumstances, it 
was my place to approach him, I did so, and spoke as politely as 
possible. He replied in a few short grunts, that were about as intel- 
ligible to me as the grunt of a hog. He soon saw that I did not 
understand him, and spoke to a boy standing by who instantly 
bounded off some hundred yards or more to a shanty. Then out 
came the best looking Indian girl that I saw in the territory. Her 
features were regular and delicate, and, for a swarthy Indian, she 
was pretty. I noticed, as she came towards me, that she was dressed 
in American lady-like style, and walked with some dignity of move- 
ment. As she approached I saw that her dress was neatly made, and 
trimmed with a gaudy display of fancy beads and other trinkets, 
especially about her breast and arms. When she came near, the old 
man said something to her. She then turned her face towards me 
and smiled pleasantly, and spoke fluently in English. I told her my 
wants; she turned to the old man and told him. He replied. She 
then said to me that her father said go to their house, which I did. 
She took the lead and the old man brought up the rear. At their 
shanty I dismounted. The old man offered to take my bridle, and. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 71 

as I hesitated a little, the girl politely spoke, and said that her father 
wanted to send my horse to water. I gave up the bridle a little 
tardily, which the girl took notice of, and I perceived that she then 
entered more familiarly into general conversation, while she busied 
herself setting out a boiled hash of meat, from the appearance of 
which 1 could not define its origin. I kept thinking about that old 
fox from whom the old man got his cap. However, I was hungry, 
and enjoyed my lady's banquet extremely. 

When my repast was over, I asked to get a supply of raw meat to 
take along with me. She pulled down from a rack several long strips 
of jerked bull or buffalo steak, and courteously handed them to me 
with a lump of hard salt. I told her that I had plenty crackers with 
me, and did not wish anything more. The old man was seated on a 
singularly- contrived stool, made of twigs of brushwood. He looked 
at me but seldom, seeming to keep his eyes fixed on vacancy. But 
when he did give me a glance, his piercing black eyes seemed fero- 
cious enough to dart through me. I noticed that he said something 
to his daughther, whereupon she asked me if I was a preacher, or a 
teacher, to which I replied in the negative. She said her father 
thought I was, and then remarked that she had been going to school 
to a preacher, which I had already suspected, as she kept trying to 
play the tactics of a white lady, and to her credit, I must say, she 
imitated very well. I inquired about the men folks of the place; she 
said they were gone down on the river, hunting. I asked her if they 
would trouble me, should they meet me; she said, " No," and went 
into the house, returning with the nicest bracelet I ever saw, and 
placed it around my wrist. " Tell my people," said she, " that I 
gave it to you," She gave her name, but I never could repeat it again. 
The bracelet was a skillful contrivance, ingeniously fixed up with vari- 
ous kinds and colors of beads woven on hair; she said it was her own 
work, and the hair grew upon her own head. It was also decorated 
with seven bits of silver, one in the centre and three on either side, 
and had curious engravings on them. I supposed, from their size, 
that they were made from half dimes. She said those bits of silver 
were her fathers, saying that the first one was her father, at the same 
time pointing at the old man, and that the next was his father, and 
so on. I supposed, from her explanation, that the seven bits of sil- 
ver represented the chain of her forefathers, traditionally kept in the 
family. As she was explaining things, the old man came near by 
and would occassionally grunt, while she would speak very good 
English. I became very much interested in the family, and would 



12 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

have liked to learn more about them, but night was coming, and I 
wanted to get away before the men of the place returned. Every- 
thing seemed civil, but I did not like to risk too much, and I pre- 
ferred roosting upon the plains. 

On leaving, I offered to pay the young lady for her kind hos- 
pitality, and I, having pulled out a handful of silver, commenced 
picking out some half dollar pieces, when she pointed out the dimes 
and nickels, indicating that t/iey suited her best. I guessed she 
wished to use them in garnishing her trinkets. So I held out silver 
and let her select for herself. She picked out three or four dimes 
and as many nickels, and seemed quite proud of them as well as 
satisfied. I noticed that while she was otherwise rather loquacious, 
that on many questions she was quite mute. The old man kept a 
vigilant eye upon me all the time I was handling the money, and I 
thought, to make things amicable all around, I would offer him a 
piece of silver, and picked out a bright eagle half dollar. He looked 
at it on both sides, and then made motion as though he would hang 
it on his ear. I looked round at the girl and she timidly said that 
her father would put it on his ear if he had one for the other one. 
I gave him another eagle half. This spread, for the first time, a 
broad grin over his face, which was the first pleasant look that he 
gave me. 

By this time, an old squaw poked her saffron-hued face out of the 
door. I thought to make fair weather throughout the camp ; I must 
not slight her, and I offered her a couple of nickels. She at first de- 
clined to receive them, but when the bonny lass explained it to her, 
she stuck out her yellow shrivelled paw and received them with a 
grin that would have shamed an old gray Sand Hill possum. 

As I gathered up my trumpery to start away, the boy brought up 
my horse, and as he had been a faithful custodian, I gave him a 
couple of nickels. At this epoch, the old man grunted something at 
his daughter, and she bounded off into the shanty and returned with 
a pair of the nicest white dressed and bead, ornamented buckskin 
leggins that I ever have seen. The background represented a green 
prairie lawn, with small cedar bushes, and white and yellow flowers 
disseminated at intervals in a bird's-eye view extending to a great 
distance. Up the centre, from the foot, rambled a large mustang 
grapevine, entwined with graceful tendrills, heavy laden with full- 
grown fruit. Interspersed were bright plumed birds, apparently 
gamboling in fantastic and playful delight. This work evinced no 
lethargic or dumpish brain, but a bright, skillful and reflective intellect. 



TFN YEAKS IN TEXAS. 73 

The old man presented them to me with a roll of grunts, pointing 
his finger to the work and then to his daughter, who, as interpreter, 
said : 

" Father make you a present, and tell you that me made them for 
him." 

I received them with several gigantic far-fetched military scrapes 
and hat-lifting bows. The bonny lass responded with a desperate 
effort in imitation of a coquettish college belle. The old man give 
me his hand with a hearty shake and another roll of grunts, which 
his daughter translated as "good luck" to me, and "come again." 

After getting away and inspecting my presents, I thought the least 
that could be said of them was, that the workmanship equalled in taste 
and skill that of our tutored college belles, and that the bonny lass had 
some admiration for the pale face, and that the old man had no ob- 
jections, provided the pale face was liberal. The bracelet and leg- 
gins would be a beauty and ornament anywhere. 

This, coupled with the novelty of my getting them, persuaded me 
to take care of them and keep them as mementoes of the Indian 
girl I met upon the Western plains. But to my great regret, while on 
a later trip to Mexico, a sneak-thieving Mexican slink stole them. 

Since the last ten or twelve years I have had more or less dealings 
with both Indian and Mexican, and upon the whole, from all .that I 
have seen or experienced, the Indian is by nature far the most hon- 
orable and noble of the two. There are, notwithstanding the many 
bloody and unrelenting outrages committed by them upon our 
pioneer citizens, traits in their native character, at once noble, mag- 
nanimous, high spirited, and devoted. An evidence of this in the 
history of the two races, from the devoted and self-sacrificing Poca- 
hontas, and the perfidious and inimical Santa Anna, to the present 
day, can be easily found. 

The Indian is naturally averse and insubordinate to the injunction 
placed upon the children of Adam. He will not toil for his bread, 
while the Mexican, to some little extent, will. Yet the latter is as 
devoid of principle as a yellow dog is of soul. 

As to the general appearance of the country in this section, it is 
not dissimilar to that of North Texas. 

In my Northwest rambles, I found the fertility of the soil, grazing, 
and salubrity of tlie climate, all that could be desired. But water 
and timber, equal to the necessities of a rural home, are not there. 

After getting as far West as Fort Sill, and loitering around several 
days, I set my compass for Montague, Texas. The weather was 



74 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

warm and dry, rendering the dewy robes of evening twilight balmy 
and refreshing, and I found the entertainment of mine host, Mr. 
Prairie Spralls, very pleasant. After plodding along for several days, 
feasting my eyes upon novel and romantic scenery, I reached Mon- 
tague, in good health and spirits, tolerably well satisfied with iny 
trip. But myself and horse often suffered from the scarcity of water. 
While much may be claimed in the acquisition of knowledge by 
travel, yet my experience persuades me that its principal merits are 
embraced in the solace of our ideal fancies, and that our time could 
be more pleasantly and profitably spent in the fruition obtained in 
the pursuits of domestic vocations. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Met my old comrade Garrett at Fort Worthy who joined me in my 
Westward rambles — Scarcity of water — Beautiful scenery — Items 
of general interest to contemplative emigrants — Interview with an 
old resident Baptist minister — A distant view of Kiowa Peak — A 
lively frolic with some Indians — Casualties — A thirsty night ride — 
Salt fork of the Brazos — Mountain spring — California trail — 
Parted with Mr. Garrett, the most faithful friend I ever met. 

I have now reached Fort Worth. Here I met my old stock-specu- 
lating friend Mr. Garrett, from whom I was so abruptly separated 
in a stock stampede a few years previous. Mr. Garrett, like my- 
self, was on the wing, and as our mutual course pointed Westward, we 
migrated thitherward in company. 

After leaving Fort Worth, and before reaching Granbury, in Hood 
county, upon a long stretch of prairie, night came upon us, and with 
the night came one of those famous, rip-roaring northers, so common 
to that section. It came so suddenly, and with such terrific fury, 
that we had no time to select a refuge or make any prerequisite 
defence, As the first whiffs began to sport around us, Mr. Garrett's 
horse bounded off and left me. My horse became so frantic that I 
thought, for the safety of my neck and other uninsured ligaments, 
that I had best slide off and anchor to a tuft of grass. By the time 
I emptied the saddle my horse was out of sight, bounding off in pur- 
suit of Garrett with the velocity of a bullet. As I was on a knoll 
where the cyclopia whiffs of wind had full play upon me, I thought 
it best to scramble off down grade, where the impetus of the wind 
would be somewhat averted. In going over a space of about a hun- 
-dred yards, I think I made at least a dozen somersaulting tumbles, 
gouging my elbows and knees into black, adhesive mud, and against 
fragments of flinty rock, scarifying and bruising the flesh in a most 
ridiculous and unmerciful manner. The elements were as dark as 
the shady side of despair ever gets. The rain was not falling, but 
flowing in torrents with the wind. As I was toddling off down 
grade in search of a refuge, I suddenly stepped off into a road-side 
^ully about six feet deep, and bumping my head and breast against 



76 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

the opposite embankment, fell backward, sprawling in a sluice of ten 
or fifteen inches of muddy water. After a desperate effort, I 
scrambled to my feet and endeavored to crawl out, but the banks 
were so slick and steep that I could not get a hold upon them. The 
wind was capering around over the banks in such a boisterous man- 
ner, that I could not stand up. And right there, in a sluicing black 
prairie gully, I had to squat and shiver until morning, when Garrett 
returned with my horse. He said that he went about three miles, 
where he found a break in the prairie that afforded him a little 
shelter from the violence of the wind. I mounted, and we rode on 
until about noon, when we came to a creek, where we washed and 
scraped off the most conspicuous daubs of mud, and built a fire and 
dried up. As I was in a more bunged-up condition than Garrett, he 
left me in charge of camp and rode off a mile or two to a farm 
house and replenished our demolished supply of rations. Here we 
bivouacked and recuperated until morning. In the morning we 
resumed our tramp, somewhat refreshed. But if I had a provoked 
spite at any man on earth, my revengeful spirit could not be more 
greatly appeased than to know that I had precipitated him into just 
such a predicament as I had gone through. 

On my way to Granbury, I saw nothing worthy of mention more 
than such scenery of bleak and barren prairies as the reader has 
already gone over. In going west from Hood county, after leaving 
the outskirts of the cross timbers, you enter upon an extensive prairie,, 
its monotony only broken at intervals by mountain knobs, and occa- 
sionally by narrow valleys, through which the rainfall is conveyed 
southward, but-generally in summer devoid of water, except in small 
stagnant pools. I crossed a few streams at great intervals that had 
running water, seeming to be fed from mountain springs. I could 
transport water for myself, but my poor horse, with whom I greatly 
sympathized, must have often suffered. I remember one occasion 
when we went two days without crossing water. We finally concluded 
that our horses must have water or they would faint and sink from 
under us. On arriving at a valley where there had been a creek, we 
followed its trail downward for two or three miles in search of a hole 
of water, but found none. We finally found a damp hole in the 
bend of the creek, at the foot of the bluff, and as this seemed to be 
the only alternative between hope and despair, we dismounted. With 
my Arkansas toothpick I hacked out a wooden spade, and with our 
tin cups for a bucket we dug a well. By the time we got as deep 
as our arms could reach, the earth became very damp — almost muddy. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 77 

We took seats and waited to see the results of our efforts. Our 
diminutive well soon filled up several inches deep with water. We 
dipped it up with our cups and imbibed freely of as cold and pure 
water as I ever tasted. Our thirsty horses seemed to know that we 
had found water, as they pawed the earth in a most restless manner. 

How to give them some of the refreshing drops was a perplexing 
problem. I finally thought of my hat, and, dipping up with my cup, 
filled my hat and gave to the horses. Garrett did the same. Our 
horses' thirst seemed unquenchable. As a hatful would about 
empty our diminutive well, we had to wait at each hatful for the 
water to rise again. This consumed some time, allaying the parch- 
ing thirst of ourselves and our horses ; and right here at the fount 
we bivouacked for the night, resting and imbibing, until morning. 

Such dry streaks as this are not infrequent in summer from the 
head of the Colorado river, west and southwest, to Mexico. Yet I 
see some writers claim an abundance of both water and timber for 
all ordinary or domestic purposes. If it is there, I failed to find it, 
while my rambles for ten years penetrated, worm-like, nearly every 
■section of the State. As to timber, it is true there are strips of 
gravelly post-oak land interspersed through the country, but such 
timber is totally unfit for the improvement of a farm, and can only 
be used for stock ranches. The stock men have no use for timber, 
except for fuel and to build a pen for branding purposes. Where 
you find land suited to an agricultural farm, you will find it, to a 
great extent, devoid of both timber and water. 

We were now as far west as the vicinity of Kiowa Peak, in 
Stonewall county, on the Salt fork of the Brazos, to which point we 
were going for the purpose of ascending the peak, and taking a 
more extensive view of the surrounding country. We were trav- 
•eling by compass and alongside of a range of precipitous hills. We 
had seen for some distance a gap across these hills, and were 
making for that point, with a view of crossing there, and a hope of 
finding a trail. As we approached within half a mile of the gap, 
we were passing obliquely by a clump of brushwood, several hun- 
dred yards to our right, and I noticed three Indians ride out to the 
«dge of the timber and halt. I called Garrett's attention to them, 
and suggested that we had best try and make the gap before they 
would cut us oft'. I thought that they would be likely to try to do so, 
and that they were pioneers of a large band. Garrett wanted to go 
for them and give them lead, but I thought that it was sometimes 
•expedient for a man to be a philosopher as well as a soldier, and 



78 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

that this was one of the times. As I persisted in my tactics to make 
the gap before they did, Garrett acquiesced, and off we bounded. 
The Indians saw our object at once, and simultaneously made for 
the same point. As we had about the same distance, the acquisition 
depended upon the fleetest horse. Notwithstanding that we were 
riding good American horses and the Indians common mustang 
ponies, I noticed that their velocity was greater than I desired. I 
further knew that as we were running obliquely to the same point 
they would be likely to get in arrow range of us before we could 
make the gap. I also knew that they could aim as accurately under 
full speed as if standing still. All this stimulated my heels in the 
riveting application of my Mexican persuaders. Garrett's horse led 
mine by thirty feet or more. When we got within about two hundred 
yards of the gap, the Indians were about one hundred yards of us,, 
obliquely to the rear. The next moment I saw an arrow fly between 
me and Garrett, and the next moment an arrow struck the rear of my 
saddle, splitting the wood off, and only impeded in its bloody course 
by an iron bar on the tree of the saddle, and by the next moment 
an arrow cut an ugly flesh gash across the hip of Garrett's horse. 
By the next we were in the gap, about face, and throwing lead at 
them. We had made only two or three shots when they wheeled 
about and retreated in a gallop. When they got away some two liun- 
dred yards, one of them dismounted and got up behind one of the 
others, and went away, leading his horse. This movement assured 
us that one of their horses at least was wounded. Garrett was very 
anxious to pursue them, but I thought that philosophy was again 
the best policy. I felt satisfied that these three were not all that 
were in the vicinity, and that they would soon rally to the report of 
our guns. I prevailed again in my philosophical tactics, and we 
rode away. 

After we had halted in the gap, which was not more than forty 
feet wide, the Indians sent a dozen or more arrows whizzing over 
our heads. They shot too high. Only two of them struck us. One 
went through the brim of Garrett's hat, and the other, after pene- 
trating a double blanket, overcoat, under-coat, vest and under 
clothing, scratched a flesh wound on my left side, and penetrated 
the same routine of clothing in my rear, until the double fold of my 
blanket stopped its reckless course. This arrow-head was chiseled 
out of blue flint. Its workmanship exhibited skill and taste. It& 
barb was neatly grooved in an arrow made of bois d'arc and closely 
entwined with a rawhide thong. I cut the string, took the arrow- 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 79 

head out and packed it away with the bracelet and leggins given me 
by the Indian girl, with a view of in future exhibiting them, con- 
trasting their designs as evidence of the difference between igno- 
rance and education. 

But, as I have already stated, while I was on a later trip to Mexi- 
co, a saffron-hued, mackerel-eyed Mexican slink stole them. From 
this interesting fandango we traveled all night due South, with a 
double purpose. First we were compelled to reach water. Secondly 
we had some apprehension about the movements of the Indians. We 
crossed no water during the night, but early in the morning we rode 
into the salt fork of the Brazos. Here we found water, but it was so 
briny that we could use but little of it ; nor did our thirsty horses 
imbibe much, and we rode on until past noon, when we very unex- 
pectedly rode UQ to a mountain spring rivulet, wending its tiny way 
from the mountain side to the valley below. Here we dismounted 
and refreshed the inner man with the (as I then thought) most pure 
and sparkling water that I ever tasted. Here we rested until morn- 
ing. Then we rode on through another wearisome day until late at 
night, when we suddenly came into a road. As we were not aware 
of this road, and did not exactly know our geographical whereabouts, 
we dismounted and bivouacked until morning, when two men passed 
by and told us that we were on the old CaHfornia emigrant trail, and 
some distance west of Camp Cooper. 

Mr. Garrett's horse was evidently giving way from the effects of 
the wound that he received by the arrow from the hands of the In- 
dians, and he concluded to go to Fort Belknap, where he had some 
friends, and there rest up. As I wished to explore the country 
southward, I set my compass for Fort Grififin, and there and then I 
parted with one of the truest and bravest friends I ever had. As to 
his fidelity, I believe he would have died by me. As to his bravery, 
he would fight a cross-cut saw naked handed. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

/ reluctantly parted with my friend Garrett — A lonely rainble — Mag- 
nificent scenery — A lonely man hanging to a tree — A hazardous 
plunge of my horse over a precipice in darkness — Appalling night 
— Daylight discloses my critical situation — Hazardous escape — 
Items of interest — Conti7iued mountain and dale scenery — Beautiful 
and healthy region^ but devoid of 7vater — First glimpse of the 
Cado Peaks — Big hole of water — Evidence of man and beast— ■■ . 
Killed a cub bear — A glorious repast on cub — Indians hove in sight 
— Narrow escape — White men in pursuit — / iva^ suspected of con- 
spiracy with the Indians — My escape — Arrived at and ascended 
Cado Peak — Beautiful Alpine scenery — Shot at and chased by 
robbers — My horse dies — I plod alo?ig on foot to the Brazos. 

IT was with much reluctance that I parted with my friend Garrett. 
I felt that I must now go alone through a wild and thinly-popu- 
lated country, infested with diabolical and rapacious bandits, 
and liable at all times to be visited by the hair-lifting red man of the 
Western plains. All these reflections had sufficient weight to attract 
some serious considerations, but my indomitable temerity overbal- 
anced them all, and away I went. 

The scenery along the route now was grand. Often would I halt 
my horse upon a knoll or knob and gaze around with rapture, whis- 
pering to myself, " right here I want to build my castle and live for- 
ever." ; 

The second day out from the California trail, I run into a trail V\ 
leading in the direction of Fort Griffin, and as it suited my pur- 
poses, I followed it up. Late that evening, as I was plodding along, 
weary and worn, in lonely meditation, my horse suddenly shied to one 
side. On turning to see the cause of his scare-up, I, for the second 
time in Texas, saw, only a few paces from the trail, a lonely man 
hanging by a rope to the limb of a tree. Such scenes as this, ab- 
ruptly presented to a lonely man in a lonely country, have anything 
but a pleasant effect. They are capable of unnerving and chilling 
the most intrepid heart. I looked around to see what I could dis- 
cover. I saw nothing but some scraps of paper torn up and scattered 
about the place. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. ol 

I dismounted- and gathered up several bits of the paper, on which 
I read the isolated words : " Brownsville, Uvalde, Tom Green," and 
others. This man was very shabbily dressed, and was fast decaying. 
The scene was too shocking and the atmosphere too unpleasant to 
remain here, and I rode away.v Night soon came on and I concluded 
to stay and rest until morning. I dismounted, staked my horse, eat 
a snack, and retired. But the appalling scenes of the evening kept 
looming up before my horror-stricken imagination in such hideous 
forms that I could not for a moment think of sleep. And as my 
horse had grazed to his fill, I rigged up and rode away. 

The clouds were beginning to spread over the upper elements, 
shutting out the skylight and shrouding the surroundings in dark- 
ness. But I thought as the prairie was open, I could find my way 
clearly, and did so for several miles. 

The clouds were now gathering to such a density that I began to 
think about halting for the night, but as I was on down grade, I 
thought that water, which both myself and horse needed, might not 
be far ahead. I would go on to it and there bivouac till morning. 

The surroundings was getting as dark as the sooty side of mid- 
night ever gets, and I cou'd not see anything at all. I gave my 
horse the bridle, and trusted to his visual guidance. But I soon 
discoved, by his stumbling over uneven tufts of grass, that he had 
lost the trail. By the time I made a mile or so, my horse abruptly 
plunged over a precipice. Extremely fortunate as it was, he 
recovered himself at a distance of about twelve feet, and remained 
in staunch position. His sudden precipitous movement threw my 
body off a balance, but 1 fortunately caught upon his neck, and 
received no further damage than a big scare and a little stomach jolt- 
ing. When my thinking apparatus got right side up, I thought that 
I could hear the ripple of a stream of water far down below me. I 
was afraid to move lest I might plunge over a greater precipice and 
unjoint my neck. I concluded I would dismount and anchor until 
morning. 

When daylight appeared, I found that I had rode over the first 
embankment of a large creek, and had lodged on a shoulder of it, 
about twenty feet wide and forty long. The next precipice went 
down almost perpendicular for thirty feet or more, terminating on a 
craggy bed of rock in a channel thirty or forty feet wide. Had I 
gone over this embankment, instant death would have been the 
result. The distance that I came down in the dark was about twelve 
feet. Such a leap as this by the best horse and rider in daylight, 



82 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

would have been extremely hazardous, to say nothing of an abrupt 
precipitation, amid the darkest of darkness. 

How to extricate myself from my pent-up and perilous predica- 
ment, was a question of no little importance. On looking around, I 
found that one end of my platform had a gradual declivity, but very 
steep, more so than a triangular roof; I saw that this was my only 
chance for escape. 

I stripped my horse and started him sliding down; and a slide it 
was, for he never made a step after starting, but slid on his feet to 
the bottom. I tumbled my saddle and other trumpery overboard and 
prepared to take a slide myself; but, by going feet foremost, cat-like, 
I made the descent without a slide. The opposite side of the stream 
was a sand bar, and I had no further trouble. I don't think that my 
horse ever got over it. 

I continued eastward until I struck the range of mountains run- 
ning south from Fort Griffin, in the direction of the Cado peaks. As 
I had heard much said about the beautiful, picturesque scenery 
afforded by ascending these peaks, I concluded to repair thither- 
ward. For the greater part of the way, my route lay in the valleys,, 
occasionally crossing mountain inlets, as the valleys elbowed around 
them. The views in these valleys are not extensive', being restrained 
within the confines of parallel ridges ; but a more charming valley 
scenery would be hard to find. Sometimes as straight as an arrow for 
miles, overlaid with a deep green-sward, interspersed with clumps of 
live oak. Intermingled with its tiny leaves and twigs was a dense 
drapery of dwarfy gray moss. Then again, the valley, worm-like, 
would crawl around the inlet spurs of mountains, which was either 
a profile of perpendicular craggy bluffs, or a more graduated decli- 
vity, mantled with green shruberry. Sometimes my trail would go 
directly across these protruding arms, while the valley would circle 
around them. 

These elevations at intervals were productive of a beatific effect, 
alternating the low short-sighted monotony of the valley with impos- 
ing views of blue mountain knobs, and terraces rising in waves higher 
and higher, as far as the eye could reach, and would finally recede 
behind a glimmering surface of sombre hues upon the horizon. 
These lands, especially the valleys, are fertile in the extreme, being 
found, upon analysis, to be a composition made up from the wastes 
of calcarious magnesian and gypsious rocks, commingled with a con- 
glomerated mass of vegetable matter, that has been germinating and 
decomposing ever since Commodore Noah quit paddling around in 
his dugout. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 8S 

The atmosphere is all purity, balmy and bracing, and a more beau- 
tiful or healthful region in which to locate a rural home, would, 
indeed, be hard to find. Yet, all this beauty, healthfulness and 
agricultural fertility, must, like the rose of the forest, bloom and fade, 
" wasting its fragrance on the desert air," for there are no flowing 
streams there to allay the suffocating thirst of animal creation. Nor 
does the clerk of the weather often visit there to disseminate his life- 
giving fluid over the thirsty drooping heads of inanimate creation, I 
found a few diminutive streams flowing feebly from the foot of the 
mountains, but they were so few, feeble, and far between, that they 
would not sustain animal life to any extent. 

I finally hove in sight of the Cado Peaks, whose magnificent 
prominence may be seen many miles away. I was on one of those 
ledges that overlook the valley below. As it was a beautiful place, I 
was tempted to bivouac for the night, but I descried down at the foot 
of the mount a clump of timber, that I thought indicated the prox- 
imity of water, and as myself and horse were both in need, I went 
thither, and luckily found at the foot of the hill a good sized hole of 
water. The water was not running from the fount, but as it was 
clear, cold and pure, I concluded that it must be fed from a spring 
from under the mount. I also noticed many tracks of various ani- 
mals, which led me to the further conclusion that many of them 
came from a distance to imbibe the cooling and refreshing drops. 

After allaying the thirst of myself and horse, and filling my can- 
teen, I concluded to go out into the valley and rest until morning. 
As I was nearing the outer edge of the timber surrounding the water 
hole, I saw a small black cub bear. Instantly he was shot down. 
For fear that the mother was nearby, I remained on my horse awhile, 
gun in hand, ready for anything that might appear, but nothing hove in 
sight. I dismounted, and on examination found my cub plump and 
fat. As he was small, I packed him on my horse and rode out to a 
suitable camping place. There I dressed and barbecued him. Not- 
withstanding my fixings were rough, my cub was fat and tender, and 
a more luscious feast than I there enjoyed on cub and hard tack 
would be hard to get up. It was after midnight before I got through 
indulging my voracious appetite and packing up, preparatory for 
movements at a moment's warning, a precaution invariably indispen- 
sable while on the frontier. 

The morning dawned beautiful and bright, and by tlie time old 
Sol's red eyebrows began to peep over the eastern hills, I was in my 
saddle. I took no breakfast this morning, as I felt quite sensibly the 



84 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

Stupefying effects of an overdose of cub. I thought it advisable to 
go by the water hole and bathe, water my horse and fill my canteen. 
By the time I was through this operation, my horse threw up his 
head and pointed his ears down the valley in a manner expressive of 
curiosity. I at once mounted and rode out to the edge of the timber 
to see what was atttacting his attention. Before I emerged to the 
open space, I discovered a herd of Indians coming up the valley 
directly towards me. They were not more than a quarter of a mile 
away. I at once knew that they were making for the hole of water. 
How to escape their notice was the excitement of the moment. The 
cliffs on either side were too steep to afford an easy egress. To take 
the open prairie and attempt to lead them in a chase, would be play- 
ing into their hands, and it might be many miles before I could turn 
the corners upon them. To go forward and meet them was unthink- 
able. The excitement of my situation was fast assuming a frenzy 
attitude. I wheeled about and rode as far up through the descending 
declivity of shrubbery and craggy rock as my horse could go. I 
dismounted and tied the lasso to a bush, and scrambled some thirty 
or forty paces further up the cliff and squatted behind a friendly rock. 
I knew that the Indians had not yet seen me, and would not, unless 
they followed up the trail of my horse from the water hole, which I 
felt certain they would do. I knew that they could easily capture 
my horse, but for myself, they must scramble up a steep declivity. 
But while they would be attempting to do so, I knew that some of 
them would bleed and die. But to my great joy and surprise, they 
came to the water hole and refreshed themselves and horses and 
hastened away up the valley. I saw that they were driving a loose 
herd of ponies. I knew from this what was up. They had been 
down in the settlements after ponies and were making their way back. 
They knew, or expected, that they were pursued, and had no time to 
parley about one scalp. Otherwise they would have trailed me up 
and besieged me a week, or taken my hair and horse along. 

As soon as they disappeared, I scrambled down from my fort, 
mounted my horse and rode out to the open valley, and as the Indians 
came the way I was going, I retraced their trail. In about three 
hours I saw the dust rising in front. I first thought it was another 
herd of Indians, but while I was looking around for a point through 
which I could escape, a second thought said to me that the dust was 
more likely to be upstirred by white men in pursuit of the fugitives 
and their booty. Upon this reflection, I concluded to go forward 
and meet them. A column of about a dozen of white men soon 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 85 

appeared, led by a big, led-bearded, brawny looking captain, who 
did the talking in a boisterous and abrupt manner. He approached 
me with the ferocity of a Bengal tiger and a roll of profanity, and 
wanted to know if I had seen the Indians. I replied affirmatively. 
He wanted to know why they left my hair behind them. I elucidated 
the concomitant circumstances in as concise and explicit a manner 
as time and opportunity afforded me. He looked at me with stern 
diffidence and very knowingly at his companions. I began to think 
about dangling at the end of a rope between blue sky and green 
grass. Finally, an older and more discreet man, who had been 
quietly listening and watching me, spoke and asked me if in my 
travels I had met either the son or son-in-law of an ancient king. I 
thought that I understood his reference, and answered him accord- 
ingly. After some further indirect interrogations, he said to his party 
that I was all right, and that he would vouch for me. At this happy 
turn in the critical state of affairs, respiration came more freely and 
less embarrassed. They made some further hasty inquiries about the 
number of Indians and the stock they had, and how to find the water 
hole, and with a free application of their Mexican persuaders, they 
hastened forward. 

I was almost in as hazardous a predicament with these white men 
as I would have been with the red men, for if they had had any 
plausible assurance that I held any connection with the Indian raid- 
ers, Mexican or Avhite bandits, they would have on the spot saspended 
me to the first limb of a tree. My correct and satisfactory answers 
to the veiled and mystic interrogatories made by the elderly gentle- 
man, was all that precluded the ligament between my head and 
shoulders from stretching. 

Some may claim that Providence had something to do with my 
deliverance. That may be true ; yet, with reverence, I am much 
inclined to the opinion that the ancient landmarks blazed out 
by King Solomon had much to do with my extrication. I was so 
solicitous about my neck, and was kept so busy answering questions, 
that I made no inquiry about my front ; and I followed up their 
trail until it turned eastward. I saw that it would lead me eastward 
obliquely from the Cado Peaks, my immediate point of destination. 
I desired to see tlie peaks, ascend them, and take an extensive and 
general view of the surrounding country. And as I was not by 
nature inclined or liable to swerve from a course once adopted, I 
left the trail, it being in a valley, and made for the most elevated 
point in sight for the purpose of getting the bearings by compass on 
the peaks, which was yet many miles away. 



86 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

While upon this elevation there came a refreshing rain, that filled 
up the little cup-holes disseminated upon the surface, which was 
quite a treat to myself and horse, and there I bivouacked for the 
night. 

You remember that I started out in tlie morning without break- 
fast. The excitement produced by the thrilling incidents of the 
day so completely averted hunger, that I never once thought of the 
packed-up remains of my cub; but as all things were now quiet, 
and my appetite reinstated, I made cub and hard tack git further 
with a lively jawbone quickstep. 

It is glorious indeed to realize a few moments of tranquil retire- 
ment, after passing through an obstreperous commotion. None but 
those who have personally experienced the like can duly appreciate 
its inestimable felicity. 

The morning dawned clear and the sun shone brightly, and 
through my field-glass the Cado peaks appeared inside of an hour's 
ride ; but it was late next morning before I reached them. On my 
arrival, I rode around the basement of west Cado peak, and selected 
a point of ascension. I made several efforts before I succeeded in 
getting up ; but I finally did so on a projecting ledge at the northwest, 
and here I feasted and gloated my visional organs on dale and 
Alpine scenery. I could, by the aid of my glass, discriminate 
between the multifarious terraces ranging along the headwaters of 
the Clear fork of the Brazos, and far, far beyond, I could discern the 
range of hills and knobs sweeping along the Conchos. South I 
could see Santa Anna's Mount and many other less prominent knobs. 
On the north I could take in with one view the whole range of hills 
and knobs that I came through from Fort Griffin ; on the east, a long 
strip of the dividing ridge separating Eastland and Comanche from 
the western tier of counties. I descried a gap through these ridges, 
and, as I supposed it to be Cox's Gap in Comanche, I took the bear- 
ings by map and compass as a guide to lead me out of the wilderness. 

It seemed that I never would tire gazing around at this exquisitely 
beautiful and picturesque Alpine scenery ; but the departing rays 
of old Sol, as they receded through the crimson robes of the west- 
ern horizon, said I must go, and as I knew that his mandates were 
inexorable I reluctantly retraced my scrambling way to the humble 
valley below. There I reposed my wearied body, amid darkness 
and solitude, upon the green-sward, while my spirit soared aloft in 
ecstatic raptures over the giddy heights that encircled me on every 
side. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 87 

By the time the gray dawn of morning began to spread its mystic 
light around me, I was in my saddle, wending my way eastward. 
This day's travel was far from a pleasant one, as I had no trail upon 
which to go, and very often had to penetrate thorny jungles and 
scramble over craggy precipices that would have put the agility of a 
•cat to want, to say nothing of a clumsy man and horse. On going down 
a narrow ravine, between Hog and Round Mountain, I rode up to a 
bunch of ponies. I saw that three of them were hoppled, and the 
others seemed gentle. I thought this indicated the proximity of 
people, and through friendly motives and a desire to see some civil 
body I halted and looked around at the ponies. The greeting was 
the inimical whistle of a gunshot from the craggy cliffs above. I 
could s'ee from whence the smoke came, but could see nobody. 
Presently another shot came. I saw the exact point of this shot. 
It was rather out of range of an ordinary gun, but to let them know 
that I, too, had a gun, I leveled it, untriggered in that direction, and 
rode leisurely away. After getting off some three hundred yards, 
I saw three men approaching the herd, with saddles and bridles in 
hand. 

I was not slow in comprehending this movement. Past experience 
had taught me that they were mountain bandits, and evidently in- 
tended to pursue and rob me. I at once galloped off briskly. In 
about a quarter, the valley made a sudden bend, and as I turned 
this, I looked back to see their movements. They were still fum- 
bling about the herd. 

After turning this bend, the valley obliqued westward, and as I 
wanted to go east, I rode out through a scrubby cedar brake, se- 
cluded myself and horse, and waited to see the movements of my 
anticipated pursuers. 

I was not long waiting before they came in full speed passing by, 
and went on westward down the valley. I at once turned and 
hastened through the brake, eastward. 

My horse, since his hazardous leap and miraculous escape in tum- 
bling over the embankment of the creek, seemed to be languishing 
very rapidly, and while I deeply sympathized with his misfortune 
and continued hardships, I furthermore knew that my safe transit 
back to civilization depended greatly upon his continuing to bear me 
up and onward. In view of this, I felt it my imperative duty to 
avoid, as far as possible, leading in a chase. 

I saw no more of my pursuers. During that evening I got a plain 
view of Cox's Gap, and taking its bearing by compass, I knew that 



88 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

the moon would be in full glow through the night, and I decided to 
go through the Gap before I stopped to rest. 

This I did, and stopped a while before daylight and took a nap. 
In the morning I found my horse apparently very dull and stupid. 
I felt some apprehension about him, and as I was appro?.ching civili- 
zation, I hoped to soon be able to do something for him. I mounted 
and gave him the bridle to travel at will, but soon found that he was 
fagging. I dismounted and led him until about noon, when he com- 
menced lying down. As I wanted water, and thought ihat he did 
also, I urged him forward ; but he soon refused to go or even stand 
on his feet longer. I stripped him and tried to nurse him, but I was 
a poor doctor. I saw a clump of timber down at the foot of the 
hill that I thought indicated the proximity of water, and I went 
thither and found water dripping from a crevice in a rock. I held 
my canteen under the drip until filled, returned to my best and only 
friend to see him growing more weak and languid every hour. 

Night came on, but the moon shone brightly, and I watched my 
horse carefully until about 12 M., when he kicked and breathed his 
last. From the night that he made that dark and hazardous plunge 
over the embankment, he gradually languished until his death. I am 
satisfied that he received some internal injury that ended his life. 

After he died, I wrapped myself in my blanket and tried to sleep 
some, but slumber, like summer birds, had flown to more congenial 
climes. My situation, all things considered, approximated desperation. 
I was far out on a lonely frontier prairie. Horse dead, rations out, 
saddle to pack, and liable at any moment to be attacked and robbed 
by the purloining nomads of the mountain jungles, or devoured by 
carnivorous beasts of the forest. 

All this had anything but a soothing effect, and was the routine of 
my rambling thoughts through the night. The morning dawned 
clear and bright, but I was not in a mood of spirits to enjoy its 
cheerful greetings. My body was wearied and fatigued almost to 
exhaustion. My mind was in an abnormal state of intricacy, and as 
there was no other alternative, I saddled up my mamma's colt ; but, 
mustang like, he did not take to the saddle well. 

By noon I came to a ranche cabin, the remains of an old ranche 
that had been removed. I saw a man loitering about the place, and 
a more acceptable scene at that epoch could not have greeted my 
wearied longings. It laid all the resplendent scenery on the Cado 
Peaks coolly in the shade. 

On approaching this isolated cabin, I was met by a clever old 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 89 

man named Thompson. He was entirely alone, with the exception 
of his wife, who, I think, was as generously disposed as himself. 
They were employed there to gather up a remnant of stock that was 
left by a ranchman who had moved away. I saw that his saddle 
was an old broken tree, denuded of all of its pristine rigging, and a 
happy thought whispered to me that I might sell him my saddle. I 
proposed a sale. The old fellow looked at it very wistfully and said 
he needed it very much, but had no money. I told him that I could 
not pack it any further, and if he could not pay for it I would have 
to leave it unpaid for. 

When the old lady saw that I was going to leave saddle, bridle and 
blanket, all comparatively new, which had cost me near thirty dol- 
lars, she toddled off to the house and brought two dollars and twenty- 
five cents, declaring that it was all the money they had. 

The old man I think was honest. He said that if he ever got the 
money and could see me he would pay me, or if he could send it to 
me that he would do so. The madam filled up my ration sack Avith 
smoked beef tongue, and nice buttermilk biscuits, and I bid them 
adieu. 

From this point I traveled on foot through Comanche and East- 
land Counties to Acton, in Hood County, thence down the Brazos 
river to Brazos Point, in Bosque county, and stopped for the summer 
with Rev. J. P. Grace. 

My ideas about glory achieved by adventure were somewhat modi- 
fied, and I would here very modestly suggest to my young reader 
that the greatest glory that he will ever realize from such reckless 
adventures, will be found in the perusal of the pen of a wayward 
prodigal. When you come to straining your muscles with its practi- 
cal tests, you will, like all your predecessors, find that all your hith- 
erto fancies are as fallacious and evanescent as a morning vapor. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Tired ramblijig — Rest awhile with Rev. J . P. Grace — Items of 
interest on agriculture ifi Middle Texas — Devastation of drouth 
— Another rambling tour — Meet a jayhawking thief — He fol- 
lorvs me up for several days and robs me — Flints on precaution — 
Splendid prairies west of the Brazos —Facts and fancies worthy 
of consideration. 

IT is now summer of 1S74. and having, by hazardous adventure in 
frontier wilds, appeased to some extent my roving proclivities 
in search of that which the human heart never finds on earth, 
viz., all things in one associated combination suited to its liking, I 
have for the summer made my home with Rev. J. P. Grace, at Bra- 
zos Point, Bosque county, Texas, and a whiter man at heart I failed 
to find in the West. In all my social and business transactions with 
him, I found his integrity, veracity and generos'ty as complete as the 
human heart, in our imperfect state, generally attains. 

This point on the great Brazos is not, by a large percentage, equal 
to the famous agricultural lands imbedded in the broad bottoms bor- 
dering on this stream below Waco, and thenceward to the Gulf. 
In consequence of these gloomy surroundings, like the Rocky Moun- 
tain locust, I hopped off southward. 

My first day's ride took me to Kimball, a small villa on the Brazos. 
As I noticed my horse stepping tenderly over the rock, I called at a 
shop in Kimball and had him shod. While I was there a man came 
around and commenced questioning me about my horse, as though 
he wished to trade for him. His quick, penetrative eye, together 
with his general appearance, said tome that he was a regular frontier 
horse thief. He wanted to know which way I was going. I gave 
him an evasive answer, which I saw aroused in him a spirit of resent- 
ment. This, I perceived, from accustomed habit, he soon concealed, 
and urged forward his intrusive intimacy. While I was paying for 
my shop work, I noticed that his jayhawking eye watched my purse 
very closely. All these unbecoming points in his manner had a 
favorable tendency to confirm my hitherto diffidence towards him, 
and led me to the determination of ridding myself of his company. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 91 

I hitched my horse to a rack in front of the shop, and abruptly left 
him. I wished to make some little purchases around town, but, go 
where I would, his impudence would meet me at every corner. I 
asked a merchant if he knew him. "No," said he "the man is a 
stran^^er in the place, having come to town the day before." I felt 
satisfied that the man's object was to follow me to the plains and rob 
me. I knew that if I was correct in my surmises, and he did under- 
take the job, that he would accomplish his diabolical purpose or 
drown in blood in the attempt. But what was I to do ? Our repub- 
lican institutions guarantee protection to all men, so long as they 
deport themselves in accordance with our laws. And this man, so 
far, had not transgressed any prescribed statute. As I had no desire 
to sp:ll a man's blood, nor lose that of my own, I set about devising 
a plan to give him the dodge. But such an artifice on a frontier 
thief is about as easily accomplished as baffling the long, instinctive 
nose of an old fox hound. My horse I had left at the shop. My 
other accoutrements I had with me. I gave a boy two bits to go and 
get my horse, and ride him around under the hill back of town, where 
I met him and rode off west. My route lay eastward. I did this to 
deceive prying eyes. After getting well out of sight, I circled round 
to my proper route, and went for^vard hastily. At Fort Graham I 
halted for dinner, but, before I was there an hour, the pusillanimous 
pup rode up and hitched his horse, and scampered around. I was 
exceedingly provoked at this, and when ready, rode boldly out of 
this place, with my purpose firmly fixed, that if he still persisted in 
following me up, that I would assume the aggressive in self-defence, 
and shoot him down in advance. I rode on to Peard, a villa in Hill 
county, and put up at the hotel for the night. After supper I walked 
out on the streets, and about the first man that I met was my jay- 
hawker. I at once returned to my room, charged my navy six with 
fresh cartridges, adjusted my Arkansas toothpick, and nerved my 
resolutions to a sticking point for what I deemed a near catastrophe 
in the drama that I had been playing. I returntid to the streets, with 
the intention of accosting and demanding an explanation of his 
conduct. But I saw nothing more of him that night. In the morn- 
ing I was early on the streets, and my Jayhawker was the first to be 
seen. He tried to pass me incognito, but I had him about as well 
spotted as he had me. I pointed him out to one of the citizens, and 
disclosed my opinion of the man, asking his advice about having him 
arrested. He said I might do so, but unless I had proof sufficient 
to sustain the action, that it might result detrimental to me, for our 



92 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

constitution and laws guaranteed to every man a legitimate right 
to go where and when he pleased, and so long as he conducted him- 
self in accordance with the prescribed statutes, that the executives 
of these statutes were bound by them to protect him against seizure 
or molestation. I also being a stranger in the place, concluded that 
under the circumstances I had no advantage of him in law, and that 
in the event that I was precipitated into a conflict with him, I would 
have to make the best of a bad bargain. As I returned to the hotel 
to breakfast, to my great delight I saw him mounted on his horse 
and riding off in an opposite direction from that which I intended 
going. 

I thought that perhaps after all my evil surmises and wrathful 
indignations, I might be in error, and truly have no grounds for sus- 
picion. After breakfast, I rode off for Hillsboro, with a lighter heart 
and in a more pleasant mood than I had been in for a day or two. 
After getting a few miles from town, while riding along beside a 
ravine densely fringed with shrubbery, unconcernedly having lost 
all vigilance, on a sudden, before I had time to think, or speak, my 
Jayhawk bounded out from the jungles to my side, poking a six- 
shooter in my face, with the words, "I will take that change now; 
you have been running from me long enough." I was so suddenly 
and unexpectedly placed in this awkward predicament, that I could 
not move a hand without being shot dead on the spot. I stammered 
out, " You must be joking." He replied, with the fierceness of a 
lion, "I mean business, and that right now!" and his ferocious 
countenance verified his remark to my full satisfaction. I forked 
over my purse; he told me to take the road, which injunction I for- 
mally complied with, he holding his navy six on me until I got off 
some thirty paces, when he put spurs to his horse and went bounding 
across the plain. I had long since learned the artifice of secret- 
ing about my person, in an unsuspected j^lace, all my money except 
travelling change. No doubt he would have searched me closely 
had he not deemed iuch an exploit too hazardous to undertake alone. 

Some of my readers may think that they would have acted dif- 
ferently, and not yielded to his demand so readily, but I will venture 
the assertion that two out of three, who so think, have never faced 
lead in close proximity in the hands of a professional desperado; 
and, alone as I then was, I had ceased to think of him, my mind was 
pleasantly roaming on topics more serene. I had ceased vigilance, 
feeling assured that my suspicions of him were erroneous, or that my 
tactics out-generaled him, and he ha^ retired from the field. He was 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 93 

by my side before I had time to think of anything. His plans were 
systematic and well matured. It was useless, even fatal, to attempt 
resistance. 

If there is a lesson to be learned from all this, it lies in the begin- 
ing and not the end. When I exposed my money at Kimball, where 
I paid the shop man for his work, here the blunder was made, for 
these prowling frontier bandits are ever on the alert for such un- 
guarded points, and from a clear experience, I would say to the emi- 
grant going to the Western frontier, that eternal vigilance and precau- 
tion is the price of safety. For while these bandits have their home in 
the mountain recesses, at intervals they roam the paths of civilization 
incognito, in search of prey; and they know that the emigrant is the 
least familiar with their tricks. 

Such audacious feats in highway robbery may, to some of my 
readers, seem preposterous. In the old States their perpetration 
would be extremely absurd, but on the Western frontier their occur- 
rence is of such frequency, that they are seldom noticed except by 
those personally interested. If you have been a scrutinizing observer 
of transpiring events, you must have hitherto seen accounts of some 
of these nomadic bandits. Notable among them was the intrepid 
Sam Bass and his co.nrades. Their rapacious temerity led them from 
bank to bank, from one railroad express to another, shedding blood 
and exploding and rifling safes, until, I think, it was in 1878, the 
majority of them, including the ringleader, Sam Bass, was killed in 
south Texas. Then again, you must have seen an account of Ham. 
White denominated the Lone Robber. This man was a resident, and, 
I think, a native of Bastrop county, in which I lived at the time he 
perpetrated his intrepid exploits. 

He was a young man, said to be under thirty years old, and maimed 
in one leg from some of his hitherto shooting scrapes. As well as I can 
now remember, he alone robbed three stages within the space of 
twenty-four hours. He was certainly a brave man, doing his work 
alone in open daylight; he was sent to the penitentiary. Then again, 
you must have read accounts of the notorious Billy Langly. He, too, 
while quite a young man, claimed the credit of murdering upwards 
of thirty men. From the conviction of his last murder, he made his 
exit from time to eternity at the end of a rope. 

Then again, you must have read accounts of the no less blood- 
thirsty John Wesley Hardin, who, for several years, was a perpetual 
thorn in the hearts of the good people of Comanche and surround- 
ing country. He escaped, after many audacious murders, to Florida, 



94 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

where he was subsequently captured, taken back to Texas, rnd sent 
to the penitentiary. 

If I were to undertake to enumerate and write up the multiplicity 
of atrocious deeds perpetrated within my personal knowledge in 
the West during my rambles thitherward, within the last ten years, 
they alone would far exceed the contemplative limits of this book. 
Suffice then to say, should you undertake to traverse the labyrinths 
of the frontier, as I have done, let vigilance attend your every 
fcotstep. 

From this calamitous point in my rambles, I traveled by way of 
Hillsboro to Waco, thence in a circuitous, worm-like route through 
the counties lying between the Brazos and Colorado rivers, south 
and west from Waco. There are some splendid prairies bordering on 
the west side of the Brazos. A man with the requisite means to pur- 
chase and improve a farm, independent of credit, can do better no- 
where else in the State. But it is said that it takes money to make 
the mare go, and I have found that the apothegm is very appli- 
cable to all business transactions, especially in Texas. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

My advance to the frontier 7vilds — Hoivling wolves at night — Sober 
reflections — Chased by a band of bandits — A running fight — 
One missing — / get away — Return South — Lonely rancho on the 
way — Hubbub betiveen Mexican and American — River blockaded — 
Hazardous escape across the river — My baggage robbed — Opinion 
of the thief — Sequel. 

THE belt of country lying between the Rio Grande and the 
great Western range of Rocky Mountains is but thinly popu- 
lated. After getting across the level country adjacent to the 
Rio Grande, I ran into those spurs of mountains protruding from the 
main range of Rocky Mountains northwest, and, in going around 
them, I struck a trail leading northward. As a survey of that country 
was my object in traversing it, I followed this trail for several days, 
until it led me to a lake of water. I made my way thus far unmo- 
lested, but at ni^ht it was the most hideously howling wilderness that 
ever greeted mortal ears. The coyotes, wolves and other diabolical 
varmints kept up a wrangling, shrieking chorus throughout the night. 
Even had they been mute as mice, their saucy impudence in coming 
up within a few paces of my camp, would have driven slumber far, 
far away. 

Having been told that this section was at times visited by prowl- 
ing Indians, and other rapacious bandits, I was afraid to build up a 
light, lest it might attract their attention, and bring down upon my 
lonely head a more omniverous enemy. I was also afraid to shoot 
the impudent pups, lest the report of my gun would attract attention. 
The moon was in full blaze, and when I was not overshadowed by 
loitering clouds that floated across the heavens, I could see plainly 
enough for self-defence. While in this lonely and benighted pre- 
dicament, I would often silently repeat to myself, '' O, wayward man, 
how long will you persist in such perverse and reckless temerity ?" 

After getting within the immediate vicinity of the lake to which 
point I was directing my way, I was riding carelessly along one even- 
ing just before sundown. I descried four horses grazing with 
saddles on. There was no brush near them, and as I could not see 



96 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

any person in the immediate vicinity, I, through timidity as well 
as precaution, halted for reflection and further manifestations rela- 
tive to the dubious circumstances. I remained some time in vigi- 
lance and wonderment, and as no one put in an appearance, I 
concluded that a retrograde movement might be more salutary than 
a forward one. With this impression I about faced, and changed 
front to the rear, and rode slowly away. I continued to keep a vigi- 
lant eye upon the horses. Before making more than a hundred 
yards, I saw the riders of the grazing horses rise up from the grass 
near by them. But they were too far away for me to tell definitely 
whether they were Mexicans or Indians. Their faces bore the 
aspect of the saffron hue, but their dress appeared too much civilized 
for Indians, and as I did not particularly desire a closer inspection, 
I started my horse off in a brisk gallop. I noticed that they simul- 
taneously did the same in direct pursuit of me. They chased me 
with all the energy they could command for more than a mile, when, 
as I supposed, they saw that my horse was too fleet for their ema- 
ciated ponies. They drew in, but continued pursuit in a moderate 
gallop. Nothing could please me better, as it was but playful sport 
for my American horse to lead them at leisure. My horse was of 
good size and speed. I rode no other sort on the frontier. For 
this is an indispensable requisite to your safety in a chase which is 
liable to take place at any time. As the sun was nearly down, my 
tactics were to lead them gently in the chase until darkness closed 
out the scene, and then, applying my persuaders, get away. As we 
sped over the plains, I perceived that their tactics were the same 
/. <?., to pursue me gently until dark and then dash upon me. As 
darkness began to close in upon us, I perceived that they were sur- 
reptitiously endeavoring to shorten the distance between us. 

Darkness was now fast closing in upon us, and in order to let 
them know that I had a gun and was not afraid to use it, notwith- 
standing I was on a run, I about faced and discharged in quick suc- 
cession two rounds at them. They responded with a half a dozen 
or more. 

This engagement brought them in rather close proximity, and I saw 
that one of them was missing, there being only three abreast. But 
I concluded that that number was too many for any one man, unless 
he was a Sampson, and was equipped with a jaw-bone. 

At this epoch, I dashed away with all the velocity that my horse 
could make. As I went, they sent their missies after me in rapid 
succession ; all, however, to but little detrimental effect, except one 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 97 

lodged in the horn of my saddle, another cut a furrow through the 
upper lip of my horse, and a third tore one side off my coat collar. 
While this would seem like picking rather closely at me, I have seen 
the day when the boys in blue picked closer still. 

They ceased firing, but continued to chase me with all the git-up 
that whip and spur could make. My advantage in locomotion en- 
abled me to go aw^y from them at a rapid rate, and as darkness was 
spread over everything, I saw no more of them. 

But, as I felt somewhat assured that they would follow me up, I 
kept my horse in a lively pace until after midnight. Feeling then 
assured that I had out-winded them, I concluded to halt. Although 
exceedingly fatigued, I would not have stopped on this account, but 
I knew that my horse was tired and hungry, and needed recreation, 
and that, perhaps, I might be chased again to-morrow. My safety 
depended on the ability of my horse to bear me away. 

With these reflections, I dismounted and staked my horse to graze, 
and refreshed myself with jerked beef and hard tack. Then I 
wrapped up in my blanket and tried to sleep some, but the excite- 
ment of the occasion had driven sleep from my eyes. The morning 
dawned bright and clear, and I hastened forward in the direction of 
the Rio Grande. I concluded that I had seen enough of that part 
of Mexico, and that I would make my way back to the lower Rio 
Grande and there try my hand at speculating a little among the sc- 
called civilized greasers. 

I saw no people for two days nor any sign of them. The third 
day I rode unexpectedly up to a Mexican rancho. As it was a di- 
minutive shanty squatted behind some brush-wood, I rode up near 
before noticing it, otherwise I might have circled around it. But 
fortunately there was a white man at the place, who seemed rather 
friendly disposed. 

On narrating my adventures and the narrow escape that I had 
made in a chase, he called out two Mexicans and related my 
story to them. Upon deliberation, they concluded that they knew 
those four men who chased me, and said that they were Mexican 
outlaws who had been run out of that part of the country, and were 
in league with Indians up the river. 

They proposed to get up a party of their comrades and insisted 
on my going back with them and assist them in trailing the bandits. 
But as I saw nothing for me to gain, and much perchance to lose, I 
persistently declined, until they let me go. 

I had the good luck at this place of replenishing my rations with 



98 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

jerked beef and bread, which was beginning to assume such diminu- 
tive proportions, thai I began to reflect rather seriously about a jack 
rabbit broil. As I passed on down southward, I found Mexican 
ranchemen more plentiful, but not more affable in manners, or com- 
placent in general deportment or appearances. But, as they let me 
pass unmolested, it afforded me some relief from lonely monotony 
to occasionally see something in the shape of civ^ humanity. 

After crossing the trail that I came out on from Laredo, and 
traveling two or three days southward, I rode upon another stream. 
It flowed in the direction that I wished to go. I followed it down 
to a point near its mouth, where it emptied into the Rio Grande. I 
learned, before reaching the Rio Grande, that there had recently 
been a considerable hubbub stirred up on the Texas side of the 
river, and that the Mej^icans had all the crossings on their side pa- 
trolled for the purpose, as they put it, of lassoing the American fili- 
busters, and that no one was allowed to cross, especially an 
American. 

I was now at a great loss to determine what to do. To remain 
there among those mustang greasers was an intolerable idea. To 
take the chances of running the blockade was at least extremely 
hazardous, for the fury of the greasers was raging above be iling- 
point. There was no alternative left me but to go down the river, 
which I did by keeping at a respectful distance from it, lest I might 
be lassoed as one of the filibusters by some of the provoked 
greasers. 

After getting down opposite Storr County in Texas, I met an old 
Mexican named Gonzales, whom I knew over in Texas. He seemed 
rather glad to see me, and pretended to treat me with some civility 
and kindness. This is a rare occurrence in their deportment towards 
an American. He invited me to lodge with him, but, for reasons 
needless to repeat, I declined and excused myself by saying that I 
preferred to camp out under a cluster of trees near by. I learned 
from this old greaser that the whole Mexican race in that section 
were inwardly and silently boiling over with indignation towards 
what they styled the American filibusters, and were ready to explode 
at any moment. 

From what I could learn of their feelings, all that was necessary 
to raise an aggressive tumult against the Texas side was an intrepid 
leader around whom to rally. I was never able to learn definitely 
the particulars nor origin of this affair further than what I picked up 
after returning to Texas, which was in substance about as follows: 



TEN YF.ARS IN TFXAS. 99 

Some Mexicans were seen prowling around an American ranche on 
the Texas side, and were accused by the Americans of stealing stock. 
A fight ensued. The Mexicans fled, but were arested before cross- 
ing the river, afterwards rescued by their friends. 

This ignited a general flame of indignation on both sides, and a 
general hubbub ensued. These boisterous upstarts are of such fre- 
quent occurrence along the Rio Grande, that those who are not 
directly interested give them but little attention. 

I stayed about old Gonzales' a week or more, waiting for the in- 
dignant greasers to cool down. But from all the information that I 
could get from Gonzales the boiling point was going up instead of 
down. I noticed that they kept coming to Gonzales' quarters and 
holding private interviews with him. They seemed to keep a vigi- 
lant eye upon me, inasmuch as I was an American. I felt suspected 
of being in sympathy, if not in direct league with the American 
filibusters. 1 embraced the first opportunity to learn from Gon- 
zales the true state of affairs relative to this matter. He confirmed 
my impression by stating that it had been all that he could do to 
prevent the Mexicans from leading me out and suspending me to a 
limb of a tree. They believed that I was sent over there by the 
Americans in disguise to watch their movements. You may be 
assured that my feelings were greatly intimidated, and that impa- 
tience was convulsively gushing out at every pore. 

As suspense was ever an intolerable bore to me, I resolved to get 
away at any hazard. I endeavored to enlist Gonzales in my behalf 
in contriving some way to get me over the Rio Grande river. The 
old fellow seemed inclined to favor me in all that he could, but said 
that inasmuch as he had long resided in Texas, if he acted in any 
way conspicuously in this matter, the Mexicans would suspect him 
of being in sympathy with the Americans, and would be likely to 
handle him roughly. 

I finally succeeded, however, in persuading the old fellow to go 
down to the river and spy out my chances for getting over. On his 
return he reported that he saw but one chance to go in safety, and 
that was for me to go down the river after night, ab* ut eight miles, 
where I would find a cattle trail leading to the river. I could follow 
this trail down to the water's edge, swim my horse over and get 
away before daylight. 

This plan greatly relieved my anxiety. Though dismal and 
apparently hazardous in its profile, I felt like I could swim 
the Gulf of Mexico, if that would open the way for me to 



100 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

escape from one of the most embarrassing predicaments I was 
ever placed in. 

Pursuant to the programme laid down by Gonzales, I left his 
ranche after night, and proceeded as directed. Gonzales would not 
go with me. " For," said he, "if the Mexicans see me riding about 
with you, they will believe me in league with the Americans." So I 
went alone, and had no difficulty in finding the way as directed. 

On arriving at the water's edge, I found that the large spreading 
branches of the tall timber clustered along the banks of the stream, 
overshadowed and spread such a dismal mantle of hideous darkness 
that it almost chilled my hitherto unswerving resolves into a tremu- 
lous retreat. But my long since adopted motto came to my relief 
and whispered that eternal perseverance was the price of ultimate 
success. 

I forthwith prepared to plunge the dismal stream. I first procured 
a pole to fathom the depth of the water, to start off on, but my pole 
found no bottom. I knew that such an abrupt plunge in absolute 
darkness would be unexpected to my horse, and that my weight upon 
him would be likely to sink him under the water, and perhaps cause 
some trouble. With this view of the situation, and to obviate any 
perilous incident, I concluded to undress and pack my clothing and 
other accoutrements as high as possible on my saddle, and start my 
horse in, grab hold of his tail, and float over Jordan. And when all 
things were ready I launched my craft and over the bubbles we 
apples did float. The exploit was quite a success. We landed safe 
on the opposite side, on a sand bar, and there dripped, resumed our 
garb, and proceeded forward. I knew that I was still in a wild 
frontier country, but the simple idea of my being back on American 
soil exliilarated my spirits in a way that opposite extremes alone can 
produce. Having found the country open and easily traversed, I 
traveled all night and until about ten next morning, when I came to 
a creek with water and fine grazing for my horse. Here I halted, 
staked him, and opened out my rations to find that they had got wet 
in crossing the river, and hardly relishable, even to a hungry man. 
My bread was^of the consistency of dough, but my smoked beef 
tongue and strips of jerked beef not materially injured. Their hard, 
flinty surface resisted the infusion of water. On examining into my 
baggage to see what further damage it had sustained, I discovered 
that the presents received from the hospitable Indian lassie on the 
plains, together with the arrow-head hurled at me in the Indian fight 
near Kiowa peak, were gone. If it had been a bushel of dollars, 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 101 

I would not have regretted their loss more. Not for their intrinsic 
value did I prize them, but for their exquisite beauty and romantic 
novelty of reception. Furthermore, I had built up some pleasing 
anticipations on the fruition of exhibiting them on my return to my 
friends in the East, as trophies of my rambles on the far Western 
plains. The anticipation of this bright, and inordinately cherished 
pleasure, was now obliterated. No one on earth, except old Gon- 
zales, had access to my baggage. I can but feel assured that in 
conformity to his inherent treacherous proclivities, the old pusillani- 
mous thief slipped them out while playing possum as my friend. 
When he told me good-bye, he said that he expected to return to the 
Colorado bottom in Texas, and there let his old bones rest in peace. 
Bat without a radical change in his way of thinking and acting, I am 
persuaded that the bottom of tophet will more likely be his last 
swinging place."^ 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Assaulted by drunken negroes — A combat — Items of interest along the 
San Antonio river — Guadalupe river — The Burr grass — A 
Mexica7i lying across the road; thought he was dead- — His treach- 
ery — He gets away with my horse — My woebegone feelings — A 
valuable lesson — Lonely tramp on foot — Lockhart and surround- 
ing country — A belt of poor country — A school celebration — 
Scarcity of water — Food for reflection in the sequel. 

AFTER remaining quietly in camp for twenty-four hours, for 
the purpose of recuperating both myself and horse, I set 
my compass for Brownsville, on the Rio Grande, in the 
extreme southwest of Texas. 

After leaving the vicinity of Clinton, I traveled up on the east side 
of the Guadalupe to Gonzales, thence up the San Marcas river to 
Luling, a flourishing railroad town located on the road leading from 
Galveston to San Antonio. 

While traveling along the road leading from Gonzales to Luling, 
I rode up to a Mexican lying lengthwise across the road. I first 
thought the man was dead, and started to ride around him ; but I 
noticed that he turned his head and looked at me. When I spoke 
to him and asked him what was the matter, he commenced rubbing 
his head and breast, indicative of pain. ]\Iy sympathies were at 
once elicited, and I dismounted, tied my horse to a bush and went 
up to him to see if I could do anything to mitigate his condition. 
It seemed to be with great effort that he spoke, but he did so, and 
asked me to take an empty bottle he had and go down the ravine 
and bring him some water. I hastened off at once. I had to go a 
hundred yards or more to the water. On getting the bottle filled, I 
turned round just in time to see the Mexican on my horse speeding 
away over the hills. O golly ! did I cry or cuss ? Well, I guess I did 
a little of both, and, fool like, I went panting, pell-mell, for half a 
mile or more on the track, until I found that the horse-tracks left 
the road. 

As my bellows were now about panted out, I anchored on the 
ground, and commenced a general inspection of my dilapidated, 
inconsiderate and insignificant self and forlorn surroundings. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 103 

On reconnoiteriiig around I found nothing left but the denuded 
remains of an ostentatious wiseacre, who was slowly transforming 
into the budding prospects of a rational man. On retrospecting 
my past career with my present deplorable condition, I was deeply 
impressed with the inexorable fact, that to learn and practice way- 
ward folly was an easy-going job ; but to learn and practice pre- 
cautionary wisdom, was the most complex problem that I ever 
atempted to solve. And notwithstanding that experience is said to 
be the parent of all human wisdom, I find, after passing the meridian 
of life, its precepts have (to me) signally failed to establish that 
goal so salutary to human happiness. 

" Wisdom hath a wondrous treasiu'e, 
Its fathoms we can never measure." 

My horse and entire outfit were now gone, and that across the 
country, due west, towards Mexico. As soon as I could get a 
rational thought into action, I decided that it was absolutely useless 
to attempt to follow up a Mexican. I well knew their Indian like 
sagacity in making their escape, and the hopelessness of such an 
enterprise, especially on foot. Furthermore, 1 had such a cursory 
and obscure view of his visage, while lying on the road, that it 
would be extremely doubtfyl whether or not I would be able to rec- 
ognize or identify him in the dubious event I should overtake him. 
It is true, I would know my horse, but it is also true that he would 
be apt to exchange him with the first Mexican Greaser that he met, 
and would be secluded in the recesses of some jungle, where I 
would never be likely to find him. O hope, soothing hope ! thou 
most faithful and lasting friend to man, in this instance I must see 
thee vanish, like the silver flakes of a morning cloud. 

I moped my way along on foot, via Lockhart in Caldwell county, 
to Bastrop on the Colorado. Slowly I trudged along, with no imme- 
diate object in view to press on time. 

As I was plodding along, weary and worn, disconsolate and devoid 
of vim or aspiration, in a kind of woebegone mood, across a patch 
of mesquite prairie, I descried, at the edge of the timber in front of 
me, something that looked like horses and people, women and chil- 
dren, huddling around a certral point. Thinks I, "what can all 
that signify in this disconsolate region ? " I saw that they were 
white people, and I proceeded to rear up my drooping head and 
shorten the decrepid limp of one foot as I approached them. 

On nearing the place, I met with some boys that were out on the 



104 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

prairie, arranging for a pony race. From them I learned that a 
school celebration was on hand, in honor of something that General 
Sam Houston had done for the Texas republic in the days of their 
daddies, and that there would be a big dinner, with patriotic ora- 
torical displays thrown in for lunch. 

As my appetite was in anything but a torpid condition, I concluded 
to appropriate the opportunity in replenishing that yawning void 
that so fawningly clings to the wayworn traveler. Of course I had 
to take in the lunch to give a kind of impetus to my apparent appre- 
ciation of the affair. There was a sort of platform erected between 
two post oaks, and upon it were to be seen the dignitaries of the occa- 
sion, with coats off and sleeves rolled up over brawny arms, collars 
unbuttoned from tawny breasts, and long, frizzly hair lolling down 
the shoulders. If I had been sent out to hunt up rail-splitters, right 
here would I have put in my application. The lady part of the 
audience were seated on some poles arranged for seats, while the 
masculine retinue were promiscuously anchored on the sage turf, 
whittling with knives and squirting amber upon the sward in lavish 
profusion. The harangue that spouted from the speakers' stand was 
a rigamarole of loquacity, devoid of head, tail or central parts, not 
dissimilar to the obstreperous bombast I used to enjoy so much when 
a boy at nigger corn-shuckings. When tjie subjects were exhausted, 
or rather, when the speaker's blowing apparatus ceased its pumping 
volubility, the long wished for announcement of dinner was made, 
which was spread upon some plank, a hundred yards or more away. 
The dignitaries of the occasion were formed in front of the battalion, 
the children in the wake, and the audience in general in the rear. 
My important self, as a matter of course, sauntered along on one 
side. They had some tooting and drum noise, and called it music. 
I just heard the noise. The dignitaries, children and women, were 
huddled around the diminutive table in massive conglomeration, and 
I began to think that my aching and yearning void would have to go 
empty still. But, fortunately for me, a clever old red-headed, calico- 
faced, muffle-bearded denizen accosted me with, " Mister, step this 
way ; you look like a stranger here. These folks, in getting up this 
fandango, didn't do it to suit me, and me and my folks got our din- 
ner in my wagon " By this time we were at his wagon, which was 
surrounded by a retinue of both genders. I was introduced in 
accordance with the ethics of the prevailing customs in vogue, and 
was solicited by all, in both words and actions, to make myself at 
home, which job is seldom attended with timidity to a hungry man. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 105 

Dinner over, the procession was formed and marched off with some 
more tooting and rattletrap noise, to the creek close by, where the 
children could roUic and romp, and those more connubially or finan- 
cially disposed could prate away the idle moments. I was invited 
by my hospitable host to accompany them, but as my wants were 
supplied, and curiosity appeased, I respectfully declined, with a roll 
of bombastic apologies, and bid them adieu. 

In traveling forward, I found water very scarce. In fact, I found 
no running streams at all, even the largest creeks — the most noted of 
which is Cedar creek — all were dried up except a few turbid holes. 
I noticed that in some places the people reached water in a compara- 
tively short distance by digging ; yet I noticed in other places, espe- 
cially along the country adjacent to the Colorado river, that the 
distance to permanent water was too great for the shovel and pick. 
Moreover, they often meet with large, thick rock on the way, which 
often precluded further progress. The surface soil is too porous 
and absorbing in its formation to retain pond or tank water, conse- 
quently the people are, from actual necessity, forced to resort to 
cisterns. This is rather costly to a man of small means. He would 
have to erect several large cisterns in order to husband a sufficient 
supply to last through the long dry spells in summer. 



CHAPTER XX. 

A thrilling and disconsolate night ajnong wolves — succeeded by a 
serene and pleasarit flight — A thrilling scene of Indians chasing 
buffalo — Habits of the biffalo — Habits of the Indian — Pleasant 
meeting of civilians — Killed a singular varmint afid broiled it 
for supper — A frightful and bloody night with wolves — A nar- 
row escape from highwaymen. 

AFTER leaving Menardville, I traveled Westward until I 
reached the old emigrant trail leading Northwest through 
the mountains, on the head waters of the Middle Concho 
river, thence to Horsehead, crossing on the Pecos river. After get- 
ting on the emigrant trail, I found an exceedingly dry country. The 
second evening my canteen of water run dry. My horse had not 
drank a drop in two days. I began to feel quite uneasy on the sub- 
ject, when about sundown I met a couple of men who told me that 
by riding awhile in the night I would come to Lapon creek, where I 
would find water. 

Tired and fatigued as I felt, and jaded as my horse seemed to be, 
I concluded that fatigue was more tolerable than thirst, and that I 
would press forward. But it was past midnight before I reached the 
creek. The water was cool, but had a brackish taste that I did not 
relish ; but it beat none too bad to, admit of grumbling. 

Here in a clump of shrubbery I once more laid me down to sleep. 
Extreme fatigue had coiled its oblivious lethargy around me to such 
an extent that care for anything had ceased to beset me in any way. 
It is only when mind and body have collapsed in the lap of exhaus- 
tion, that the soul can serenely repose in that beautitude that feels 
and knows no care or sorrow. The slumber of the grave cannot be 
more beatifying. 

The morning dawned to find me still unconsciously embraced in 
the soothing arms of oblivion, and it was only the late descending 
beams of old Sol's smiling countenance that brought me to conscious- 
ness. I found my horse quietly grazing where I had left him, and 
proceeded to bathe, and invigorate on jerked beef and hard tack, 
after which I remounted and proceeded into the mountain jungles. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 107 

For two days back the face of the country was comparatively 
level, but in front and to the right I could see at a distance huge bil- 
lowing waves, rolling over sombre hills and Alpine heights. On my 
left was spread out an eternal plain to the horizon. But this morn- 
ing the gigantic cliffs and swells confronted me with all the grandeur 
that such upheavals of nature can produce, and I was soon wander- 
ing through their lonely recesses. I crossed the middle Concho dur- 
ing the day, and in the evening ascended an arm of a mountain 
projecting from northward. As the day was far spent, and here 
seemed to be a pleasant as well as a safe place to roost, I concluded 
to bivouac for the night. 

The scenery at this point was exquisitely beautiful. The chain of 
mountains that projected westward in ridges of waving green seemed 
to terminate in diminutive bubbles on the distant horizon. To the 
south, str.etched away in seeming infinitude, a plain or valley, that 
appeared to sink lower and lower, as its dismal shades receded from 
you. To the east the multifarious upheaving knobs seemed to rise in 
terrace after terrace, until the eye, in its infirmity, failed to trace 
them farther. 

The sun was now bidding us adieu, and quietly creeping off be- 
hind the Western hills, while his retreating radiance glimmered in 
variegated hues upon the tiny specks that bespangled the etherial 
vaults of the illimitable blue. The mountain chilliness of the even- 
ing suggested that perhaps my selection for a lodging might not be 
as pleasant as I had anticipated ; but I consoled my apprehensions 
with the reflection that what I might lose in this respect would be 
more than commuted to me in the unmolested freedom from the 
diabolical annoyance of coyotes and wolves, that were likely to in- 
fest the valleys below. But alas, how balefully the hopes of man 
are often disappointed. 

After staking my horse and gnawing awhile on jerked beef and 
hard tack, I wrapped up in my blanket and lay down with a view to 
a snooze. But it was so chilly I failed to start off as readily as I 
desired; and fortunately for me it was so, for the wolves and their 
concomitants soon had the surrounding elements ringing and rever- 
berating with the most hideous screams and howls that ever as- 
sailed mortal ears. I felt more uneasiness about my horse getting 
away than I did about my own safety. I knew that I could retreat 
up a sapling as previously on the memorable night that I was as- 
saulted by ferocious wolves in big brushy bottom. But I did not 
feel like taking another tramp next morning out of that howling 
wilderness. 



108 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

My horse, however, withstood the racket much better than I ex- 
pected ; in fact better than myself, for I had to mount him several 
times during the night, to prevent the impertinent pups from seizing 
me and dragging me away. They would assault my camp at intervals 
in battalion force. The most venturesome would approach within 
twenty feet of me and snarl and snap more vehemently than a Royal 
Bengal tiger. I could have easily shot them down, for they were 
often in close proximity, and quite visible. But I was afraid that 
the report of my gun, in its echoes down the valley, might bring 
upon me a more omnivorous enemy. It was also extremely hazard- 
ous to make a light, more especially on elevated mountain peaks, for 
the nomadic Indian and mountain jayhawker are ever on the alert 
and can descry a light at a great distance, and will come to it, 
slay, scalp and rob you. 

It was with a restive tardiness that my pen can never picture that 
this hideous night slowly dragged its dismal darkness away. Finally, 
the gray dawn of day timidly and leisurely made its debut on the 
vaults of the eastern horizon. The bugbears all absconded, leaving 
me amid the solacing environs of quietude. Yet, I was oppressed 
with more stupid lassitude than was tolerable for one man to bear. 
I mounted my horse and proceeded on my lonely way. 

During the evening of this day, I came to the last tributary of the 
Concho river. Here I watered, and would have bivouacked for the 
night, but suspected that the wild carnivorous beast of the mountain 
jungles might again be on the prowl, and to rid myself of the ob- 
streperous nuisance as well as peril, I rode on to the plains beyond. 
Here I spent one of the most pleasant nights that I can remember 
upon the plains. Such a retreat is seldom found by the frontier 
traveler. The prairie was broad, the air fragrant and balmy, the 
soft radiance of the full moon beamed gently, calm and serene; all 
nature seemed to be freed from care and environed with that holy 
atmosphere that fanned away every mote of real or imaginary dis- 
contentment. 

Lonely solitude, though often dismal and oppressive, sometimes 
entwines around the human heart a rosy wreath of felicity known to 
no other moments in life. The nobler attributes of our natures are 
elicited, and we can commune with freedom in an ideal work. Not 
only here, but also with those we love, with whom we have spent so 
many pleasant moments on earth, and with those holier spirits of 
promise, the fruition of which are the secret idols of every heart. 
Let our assumed garbs be what they may, in these lonely retrospects 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 109 

we can carry our footsteps up the course of time even to the lap of 
a fond mother, and on the way may be found many vivid and pa- 
thetic scenes and incidents that solace and enrapture the heart with 
ecstatic delight. But from these beatifying retreats we must return 
to present realities. 

I arose with the morning feeling greatly refreshed, both mentally 
and physically, mounted my horse and wended my way due west. 
On the right, bearing northward, stretched away to the junction of 
blue sky and fiery surface, a beautiful plain. On the left, southward, 
the mountain summits stood in exalted zigzag columns, as though on 
sentry for the modest valleys that lay prostrate at their feet. 

This day's travel brought me to a water hole, around which I no- 
ticed a multitude of animal tracks, including those of the horse. I 
concluded that I had best water up and get away, lest some nomadic 
visitor might call around, with whom I might prefer to decline an 
intimate acquaintance. In view of this, I passed on to a gap in the 
mountain through which my trail led. 

As dewy eve was now beginning to spread her dismal mantle o'er 
hill and dale, I concluded to bivouac for the night, and thought, as a 
precautionary measure, I had best get off a piece from the trail and 
gap, as it was the only thoroughfare through the mountain. To do 
this, I had to scramble up a declivity through craggy rock and 
scrubby brushwood. I finally reached a plot of an acre or more, 
densely environed by shrubbery, and there I rested until morning. 

As the morning dawned, I felt a little weary, and was a little slow 
preparing to leave. Before I did so, the sun was blazing high over 
the monarchical peaks that loomed up at intervals all around me. 
While I was delicately gnawing on hard tack and a string of jerked 
beef thong, my horse began to hoist his 'head and point his ears 
sharply forward, indicative of something excitable advancing on the 
other side of the mount. 

My first impression was that it might be a herd of Indians coming 
down the valley, and if they passed through the gap I could find no 
better or safer seclusion than where I was. With these reflections, I 
concluded to leave my horse and creep around the mountain through 
the dense shrubbery to the opposite side, and see what the attraction 
was. As I reached a ledge projecting plainward on the east side, I 
beheld one of the most thrilling scenes that I ever saw on earth. 

The first sight was a massive herd of buffaloes at least a mile long 
and scattered promiscuously up the valley as far as I could see. 
They were going pell mell for the mountain recesses. 



110 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

About this time there hove in sight, at the rear of the buffalo col- 
umn, a herd of Indians, that were trying to cut off a squad of the 
buffalo ; but every time the Indians would make a dash to intercept 
them, they would hoist their tails skyward and bow their heads earth- 
ward and plunge through the Indian files. They had gone through 
this evolution several times, when another squad of Indians came 
dashing up to their relief, and all together formed an intercepting col- 
umn too formidable for the buffalo ; and a squad of a hundred or 
more retrograded, and away they sped over the plains, Indians in pur- 
suit, until distance closed the scene. By this time the main herd of 
buffalo had escaped from view. 

I was so enthusiastically elated with this transporting scenery, that 
I had entirely forgotten all about self or its perilous surroundings. 
But I hastened back to my horse and found that he too, in his ex- 
citement, had entangled himself in his lasso. I hastened to extricate 
him and get away lest other feather-capped redskins might prowl 
around and take my hair along to garnish their wigwams. 

These nomadic redmen of the plains are about as well versed in 
the general proclivities, habits and tactics of the buffalo as an old 
herdsman is in the traits of his domesticated cattle ; for it is to the 
buffalo that the redman of the frontier must look for subsistence. 
They know with almost unerring certainty where and when to go to 
find the buffalo. 

From the best information that I could gather relative to the 
habits of the buffalo, it appears that they winter in the valleys inter- 
spersed through the mountains north of Texas ; and since the grass 
springs up earlier in the coast region than it does in the higher 
mountain region northward, the buffalo by instinct migrates south 
early in the spring. Were they not molested or interrupted by man, 
they would, as in former times, penetrate southward to the coast of 
Texas ; but the great influx of emigration to the frontier, in their 
profitable as well as sportive proclivities in chasing the buffalo, have 
of late years about bluffed them beyond the limits of the State. 
Occasionally they visit the northwest portion, commonly called the 
Panhandle of Texas. 

The wild redmen of the western frontier are nomadic in their 
nature as well as habits, and cluster together in tribes, with a mon- 
arch chief at their head, and a retinue of subordinate chiefs, who 
by intrepid exploits are endeavoring to reach the kingdom. As 
they migrate in search of better hunting grounds, or to get rid of 
some pestiferous enemy, they take with them their entire possessions, 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. Ill 

including women and children. They have, from life-long expe- 
rience and observation, very correct ideas of where the buffalo are 
most likely to be found. In the vicinity of such places they will set 
up their wigwams, and the old chief sends videttes to spy out the 
buffalo. These videttes are stationed at intervals on elevated 
points, and have signals by which they communicate with each 
other and back to camp. A smoke is a favorite signal with them. 

When the buffalo heave in sight of any of the videttes, they com- 
municate with each other, from post to post, and back to camp. 
On receipt of the good news in camp all is in a bustling commotion. 
The men mount their ponies and go forward to surround and slay 
the buffalo; the women and boys follow in their wake to do up the 
butchering. In order to facilitate the transportation of the meat 
and hides, they endeavor to drive the buffalo as near camp as pos- 
sible before slaying them. This very likely was the object of those 
I saw cutting off and driving back a squad near the mountain gap. 

I met with nothing more of an exciting nature until I reached the 
Pecos river. Here I met a squad of the most suspicious looking 
Mexicans and white men that I had seen for some time. I was very 
anxious to get some information about the country and other topics 
in general, but their treacherous and diabolical looks discouraged 
any inquiry further than as to where the two roads branching off 
from the place might lead. I was told that one led up the Pecos 
river for some distance, thence westward, and that the other led 
southward to Fort Stockton. 

As I wished to delude them in the course that I would travel, lest 
they might follow me up and rob me, I rode off on the road leading 
up the Pecos river, and, when well out of sight, circled round to the 
road leading to Fort Stockton. This is called the Comanche trail, 
and a high and dry trail it is. 

At Fort Stockton I took the El Paso road, and followed it up two 
or three days, when I saw men approaching me from the west across 
the prairie. As they bore a civil aspect, I halted for them to come 
up, and to my great delight I found them to be genuine civilians 
from old Tennessee, prospecting the country. Those who have 
ever remained within the suburbs of civilization cannot conceive 
the happy influence and solacing feelings that are entwined around 
a man when he meets a courteous and gentle civilian on the 
wild Western frontier. The sun shone brighter, and my heart 
throbbed lighter ; hope was more cheering, and I was less fearing in 
the ultimate attainment of my cherished ideal fancies. From these 



112 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS, 

gentlemen I received much valuable information about the country. 
They said that if I followed up the road that I was on, I would find 
it a dry and barren way, and, as it was a public thoroughfare, I 
would be likely to meet up with bad men, who loitered the road for 
the purpose of preying upon any one suspected of having money ; 
and' that they would not hesitate a moment to take my life and empty 
my pockets ; but if I would take the plains to the Rio Grande, and 
follow it up, I would at all times be within reach of water, and the 
way, at least, would not be more hazardous than the one I was on. 
I thought their suggestions were good, and I took the plains to the 
Rio Grande. 

The evening before I reached the river, as I was slowly plodding 
along, weary and worn, thirsty and hungry, I discovered a streak of 
timber off to my right. In the West timber is an indication of 
water, as it generally grows up to any size nowhere else but along 
water courses. 

I obliqued in the direction of the timber. On reaching it, I found 
in a brushy ravine, a plenty of good water. Indeed, it was a glorious 
treat to me and my horse. As I was returning from the ravine, I 
saw a varmint about the size of a large house cat. I immediately 
shot it down, and as my jerked beef thongs had been out for two 
days, I concluded to have a fresh broil to go with my hard tack. I 
took it back to the water and dressed it. Night was now drawing 
near, and I made my way out to the breaks in the hills and then 
selected a kind of gully to build my fire in, to broil the critter. I 
have no name for the thing, as I never before nor since saw one just 
like it. But I soon had him stretched on sticks, salted and peppered, 
and broiling on a tiny fire in a dry hillside gully. I selected a gully 
to prevent my light from being seen. This precaution is absolutely 
needed when in range of Indians or frontier jayhawkers. To say 
that I there enjoyed one of the most relishable repasts of my life, 
would but feebly express what my yearning appetite realized. But 
every sweet has its bitter, which fact was soon quite feelingly im- 
pressed upon me. My repast over, I repaired to the foot of the 
slope, staked my horse and coiled up in my blanket, with the hopeful 
anticipation of solacing in pleasant dreams and quiet slumbers. But 
before long the same old wolf tune, with all its varied accompani- 
ments, embracing about three octaves in tones, semitones, and demi- 
semi-quavering tones, reverberated through the surrounding elements 
in anything and everything but concordant harmony. I rather 
expected this, for a wolf can scent fresh meat, especially on a broil. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 113 

at a great distance, and will go to it. The extent of their voracity is 
soon manifested by the extent of their impudence. If very raven- 
ous, they are liable to attack you with intrepidity. On this occasion 
their appetites seemed a little voracious, as they trotted around my 
camp and between me and my horse, that was not more than ten 
paces from me. This intrepid audacity soon brought my hesitancy 
to a definite conclusion, which was to mount my horse and shoot 
down as many as I could, and then get away before the report of my 
gun would bring other prowling varmints, in the shape of human, to 
their assistance. I think I left not less than eight or ten sprawling 
lifeless on the ground, to say nothing of a greater number that went 
limping away. At the close of this exciting exploit, I galloped av/ay 
and traveled all night, under the impression that it would be more • 
safe and pleasant to travel at night and rest and sleep through the 
day. 

The morning dawn exhibited a fair view of the timber fringing the 
banks of the Rio Grande. I rode on to the river, and after watering 
I rode out to an isolated clump of brushy timber. Here I dismounted, 
staked my horse, and devoured the remains of my broiled varmint, 
and lolled in the lap of snoozedom until evening. When about sun- 
down, I rode to the river, watered, and made my way up the river 
on a trail evidently much used. I met no one, nor anything of inter- 
est, until late in the night I rode up to a little log villa along the 
roadside, and rode on by the place, seeing no one nor anything 
indicative of life, except a little flickering light that faintly glimmered 
through a crack in one of the shanties. After passing beyond the 
place, I felt somewhat assured that I had passed through unnoticed, 
but before I had gone more than a mile away, two men galloped up 
beside me, one on either side. I did not like the intimate position 
that they had taken, nor the familiar roll of loquacity that they unin- 
terruptingly showered upon me. They propounded more interroga- 
tories than three lawyers could analyze, and began telling me how 
familiar they were with the country, and that, if I wished to engage 
in speculations of any kind, they were the men to give me the dots. 
I at once decided that they were highway robbers, and were trying to . 
pave the way to denude me of all that I had. The sooner I got rid 
of them the better. I set my thinking apparatus- in motion to arrange 
a plan by which to escape them. It must be by flight, for evidently 
no other alternative was left me. A combat with them would be 
absurd in the extreme, for they were well armed, and, no doubt, were 
adepts in the use of firearms. I noticed that their ponies were the 



114 TEN YEj^RS in TEXAS. 

ordinary mustang, while my horse was American stock of good size 
and speed. I quietly gathered up the reins in my left hand and 
placed my right on faithful old navy six, and vehemently gouged both 
spurs simultaneously into the flanks of my horse. I think he antici- 
pated my designs, for he bounded away with more velocity than I 
ever saw him make before. I guess I was fifty yards away before 
they realized my object. But J noticed that they sprang forward in 
pursuit, and at once opened fire upon my vanishing shadow. In 
order to let them know that I had a shooting machine, as I sped away 
I turned in my saddle and emptied six rounds at them. There was 
no moonlight, but the upper elements were clear and the stars shone 
brightly. I soon discovered that they had ceased to follow me. 
• Here I held up my horse to save his wind and vim for any future 
emergency, as these incidents were liable to occur at any time. 



CHAPTER XXL 

Concluded to return to civilization by way of the PanJiandle of Texas — 
Appearance of the country — Met a squad of soldiers — Ramble 
south on the red fork of the Colorado — Chased by Indians — My 
escape — The appearances and my opinion of the country — Afet a 
lone mountain trapper — His secluded retreat — His hospitality — 
The cause of his isolated life — Pefidy of 7Voman — Aiy opinion of 
commercial affairs — My opinion of the trapper, and my leave of 
him. 

AT this epoch in my hazardous adventures, I concluded to re- 
turn to civilization. And, as I thought to retrace the route I 
came would be equally as perilous as to circle around east of 
Pecos river, and thence southward, I took the latter direction. More- 
over, I thought that if I could get through safely, I would have an 
opportunity of seeing more of the Western plains. With these con- 
clusions perfected, I set my compass for the water holes on the. old 
California emigrant trail, leading through the Panhandle of Texas. 
For several days I met nothing more interesting than a few buffalo 
and antelope, with numerous bounce up and hop off on three feet 
of the nimble and agile Jack Rabbit, the scene occasionally variegated 
by extensive flocks of the wild prairie chicken, hovering over and 
circling around you. 

This section is a high, sterile prairie, generally an unbroken plain, 
except at broad intervals where they have apparently been broken 
by collective floods of water in making their way to the Gulf. In 
places along these ravines timber may be found, but nowhere else 
except occasional bunches of thorny shrubbery. In the vicinity of 
the water holes I met a small squad of United States troops, who 
had a few tame Indians with them, and said that they were on a 
scout for wild Indians who had recently been depredating on the 
white settlements. They cautioned me to be vigilant and on the 
alert at all times, lest ere long my scalp might adorn a wigwam. 

Before leaving them, they suggested that it might be best for me 
to remain with them a day or two. But my indomitable temerity 
whispered that I had hitheto taken care of myself, and that I w c u 
not at this late day shelter under the wings of others. 



116 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

After thanking them for their proffered protection, and a liberal 
donation of hard tack, I bid them adieu, and set my compass for 
Mount Laurence on the head waters of the red fork of the Colorado 
river. On the second day, in the evening, as I was leisurely riding 
along through abroad valley, while the soft and gentle breezes from 
the South played upon my brow, I noticed on an elevated point some 
distance in front, a tiny smoke curling its way skyward. I suspected 
at once that it was an Indian signal and that I had been descried by 
them. I instantly looked around, and saw two other streams of 
smoke worming their way off on the breezes, one to my right and the 
other obliquely to my rear. All of them were two miles away. I 
halted to see if any others would put in an appearance, but no more 
hove in sight. I felt the inestimable importance of getting away and 
that quickly. But I was at a considerable loss to determine definitely 
which way to go. 

Evidently there was no time for parleying or projecting. I decided, 
as there was no smoke on the east, that I would go in that direction, 
towards the Colorado river, with the hope of that way being open, 
I was not long in perceiving my misconception, as a half dozen or 
more feather-capped red-faces hove in sight. They were not more 
than half a mile away, under full speed, and making direct towards 
me. I galloped off in an oblique direction, under the solacing im- 
pression that my faithful old gray could at leisure lead them in a 
safe chase. But I was not long in finding that my computations were 
ill founded, at least for one of them, who was leading the squad by 
two or three hundred yards. I saw from the fleetness of this horse 
that he was likely to come up with me, and concluded to lead off at 
a rate of speed that would not only keep him at a respectful distance, 
but would leave the main squad out of sight to the rear, and in the 
event tliat this fleet horse came up with me, his rider would be alone 
and I would have as good a cliance in a single combat as he. The 
chase continued at a high pressure for two or three miles, when I 
noticed that the main squad were falling almost out of sight behind, 
and I also noticed that the champion of the chase was gaining ground 
upon me. I could have made a little more speed, but was endeavor- 
ing to save up the wind of my horse, lest I might be intercepted by 
others on the way ahead of me. 

I felt satisfied that the object of the Indian pursuing me so closely 
was to keep in sight of me until my horse would fag, when the others 
of his party would come up, and then they would attack me in full 
force. I also knew that one Indian alone was not likely to attack a 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. llY 

white man in a combat. I further thought that a little strategy was 
now in demand, as my horse, stumbling over rough places, began to 
show evidence of weakness. 

The Indian was still three or four hundred yards behind me. I 
concluded to halt, about face, and exchange a few shots with the red- 
face villain. As soon as I halted and took my position, the sagacious 
dastard commenced to circle around me. I at once saw that his ob- 
ject was as I had expected, /'. <?., to get around me, and keep me at 
bay until his friends came up. I let him circle about half way 
around when I concluded to charge upon him and open fire with my 
rifle as I went. When he saw my object he obliqued to the rear. 

As he went away I emptied three or four cartridges at him, but 
with no perceptible effect. The resting of my horse was my main 
object, and I pursued him no further but remained still. When he 
saw that I stopped he also stopped and dismounted ; and to show 
him that I was disposed to be uniform, I also dismounted. We were 
two or more hundred yards apart, and I guess it would have been 
hard for an outsider to tell who watched the rear for the approach of 
the main squad the closest, he or I. 

It was some time before his comrades hove in sight, but I finally 
saw their heads toddling above the grass. I remained still in place 
for the purpose of resting my horse until they approached within a 
quarter of a mile. I noticed that their ponies were fagged down to 
a creeping trot. My horse by this time had recovered his wind, and 
stood straight up. 

It was now near sun-down, and I thought that I could lead them 
at a safe distance until dark, when I would give them the dodge. I 
waved my hat at them and galloped away. I expected them to con- 
tinue pursuit of me, but noticed the champion of the chase ride out 
and meet them ; then they all dismounted. As I got nearly out of 
sight of them, I halted and drew a bead on them with my field glass. 
I did this to ascertain what they would do, return or follow me up. 
If the latter, it was indispensably expedient that I should be aware 
of it. They remained but a short time, when the entire retinue 
mounted and slowly rode back on their fruitless trail. 

I felt as much relieved at this as I ever did at missing a licking for 
stealing apples when a schoolboy. For my horse was too much 
jaded to stand another chase. Furthermore, I knew that it was a 
long way home, and my horse's ability to bear me up was my only 
hope of getting there. 

Darkness was now upon me, but I had noticed before dark a streak 



118 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

of timber in front of me; and as this is almost an invariable indication 
of a water course, I concluded to press forward and, if possible, 
reach water, for I knew that my horse must certainly feel very thirsty 
after such a long and fatiguing chase. I reached the stream in 
about two hours' ride, and found splendid water. It was a little 
brackish, but cool and refreshing. I think the source must have been 
a mountain spring, as I seldom found as good water flowing through 
the main channels of the country. 

After watering, I rode out on the valley and staked my horse, but 
he was too much fatigued to graze and lay down. I felt a little un- 
easy about him until morning, when I found him up and cheerfully 
grazing, and ready for another chase. As to myself, I was also too 
much fatigued to eat, even if I had had anything edible. I had a 
good supply of hard tack, but unless a man is very hungry they alone 
make a dry and tasteless lunch. I enjoyed but one during the night. 
Next morning, Avhen my appetite felt somewhat better, it got away 
with three or four. 

I was soon on my way down this stream, and, as I expected, it 
emptied into the red fork of the Colorado river. Having hitherto 
suffered so much for the want of water, I concluded to keep at least 
in sight of the river as I went South. I knew that its winding course 
would lengthen my way, but I thought that I could stand the distance 
better than I could starvation for water. Furthermore, I knew that 
the Colorado river would lead to the country that J wished to go to. 

The general surface of this section is mountainous. I believe as 
much so as any section that I had hitherto passed through. It is 
true there are at intervals plots of level surface, but upon the whole 
I don't think that they will embrace more than one-third of the sur- 
face, which, in general, is matted over with a heavy coat of mesquite 
grass. This is interspersed, more or less, with dwarfed trees and 
shrubbery, fit for nothing on earth but fire-wood ; and, I guess, it 
would puzzle the skill of the best mechanics to erect a pile out of 
some of it that would lie close enough to burn. 

About midway of the evening, as I was plodding along down a 
broad valley in a most dejected mood, vigilantly spying around with 
the hope of descrying a calf, from whom I might draw another sup- 
ply of luscious steak, 1 descried something that looked like a man's 
head protruding from behind a craggy rock, almost half way up the 
side of a mountain that abruptly confronted me. I halted my horse, 
got out my spy glass, and set it upon the object, discovering that it 
was a living human head and face. I also discovered in front of it a 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 119 

similar glass to that of mine. As it did not move or make any signal, 
I was at a loss to determine what to do. I saw that it was the head 
of a white man, whose body was hidden behind the rock. Every 
feature of his face and head could be clearly seen. 

I concluded to make a signal, which I did by waving my hat at 
him. But there he remained as solid and immovable as the rock that 
shielded him. To determine whether he was a friend or foe was an 
intricate as well as important problem. 

I finally concluded that he was more likely to be an enemy than a 
friend, and perhaps was stationed there as spy to a band of robbers. 

I rode obliquely away, but kept a vigilant eye upon him. Before 
I had made many paces, I noticed him on top of the rock, waving 
his wolf-skin cap at me. The distance was too great for verbal com- 
munication — I suppose some three hundred yards. I halted to see 
what his signals would result in. I still had some dubious apprehen- 
sions as to his intentions, lest he might be endeavoring to ensnare me 
into a trap and rob me. As I made no advance, he commenced 
scrambling down the declivity. As I was out on the open prairie, 
^nd could not be surprised by a dash of his comrades, I concluded 
to remain in place, and if he advanced alone, I would not be afraid 
of him. He finally reached the foot of the mount and advanced 
alone. As he came up to me, he did so with some bearing of civility, 
which I reciprocated with due regard. He said, by way of self- 
introduction, that he was a mountain trapper, and had been out upon 
the peaks watching for buffalo. He had descried me several miles 
up the valley, and had watched me very closely as I advanced, and, 
inasmuch as I appeared to be a civil, lonely traveler, he concluded to 
try to make my acquaintance. He had not conversed with any one 
in several months. After some further interdiange of compliments, 
he informed me that his home was on the opposite mountain, under 
the ledge of a rock, and that no one had visited the place since he 
domiciled there years ago. He very cordially invited me to go home 
with him, and participate with him in his viands and lodging, men- 
tioning that I would find them rustic in their make-up, but healthy, 
and I was welcome. Right here precaution whispered " halt, and 
look before you leap, lest you may inadvertently precipitate yourself 
into a den of thieves and robbers." The man noticed my diffidence 
and timidity, and set about assuring me that his only object was social 
friendship. He succeeded in gaining my confidence by making 
known to me in a proper way that he had entered as an apprentice 
and had served the craft until he mastered his profession. As I had 



120 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

replete confidence in the training of such men, I hesitated no longer, 
but cheerfully went with him. I found all to be as true as repre- 
sented. As he led the way to his retreat, he diverged up a ravine 
that made out from the main valley some mile or more, down which 
flowed a rippling rill from a mountain spring It was the purest of 
sparkling water. Where the head of this ravine terminated in an 
abrupt bluff on all sides, its bed was some hundred yards wide, and 
interspersed with clumps of scrubby timber and carpeted with a heavy 
coat of mesquite grass. On this the isolated mountain trapper kept his 
horse hoppled. Here, he said, I must hopple my horse and leave him 
with his. He furthermore said that he never went up or came down 
from his roost in daylight, lest some one might discover and dispos- 
sess him. As I had confidingly placed myself in his care, I was 
subservient to his dictates. We put away my horse and secluded 
ourselves amid the shrubbery until after night, when we started up the 
mount. About two-thirds the way up, we were confronted by a wall 
of rock some fifteen feet or more high. My host motioned me to 
remain silent in place, which I did, while he went away several paces 
and returned with a platted buffalo thong, a rock of about two pounds* 
weight fastened to one end of it. He coiled the thong up in his hand 
and pitched the rock end over a knob of the rock at the upper side 
of the wall. The weight of the rock fastened to the thong brought 
it back to his hands. He gave the thong a few twists, and by grab- 
bing shorter holds with his hands upon the thong, and scrambling on 
the roof-shaped wall, he went up and down to show me how the feat 
was performed. I was a little dubious about a siiin scaling, but took 
hold of the thongs and went up without a bobble. He followed suit, 
and we were soon on the inside of his domicile. It consisted of a 
cavity under the ledge pf a projecting rock on the south side of the 
mountain. The cavity was some ten or more feet deep, extending 
back in a rainbow circle some thirty paces, the latter end terminating 
several paces obliquely from the entrance, and within a few feet of 
the outside of the mountain. He had, by the use of a long bar of 
iron that he brought from the settlements, gouged out a port hole 
obliquely upwards to emit the smoke from his den. He said that he 
never made a fire or smoke in daytime, lest it might be seen by 
Indians or mountain jayhawkers, and lead them to investigate from 
whence it came. As to the light of his fire, the circle of the cavity 
precluded it from sight, even at the entrance of the cavity. A more 
commodious or safe retreat the oldest fox extant could not select, and 
its occupant was as sagacious and cunning as he was fortunate in 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 121 

finding so convenient a place for his adopted isolation, and notwith- 
standing the lonely monotony peculiar to such a mode of living, he 
was not devoid of taste and pride in the symmetry of his household 
arrangements. His floor was carpeted over with buffalo robes ; his 
bunk was a neat make-up of buffalo robes and blankets, and placed 
on one side of his tiny fireplace. His viands were neatly hung upon 
sticks on the opposite side, and the entire circle of his lodging was 
promiscuously strung out with a multiplicity of multifarious furs and 
hides common to the mountain regions on the head waters of the 
red fork of the Colorado river. A baking skillet, a coffee pot, a few 
tin plates and cups, a huge flesh fork, bucket and chop axe, com- 
prised his cooking outfit. There was no necessity for cooking at my 
visit, for mine host had an ample supply of different meats already 
prepared. A cup of warm coffee was all that was lacking to render 
our repast complete. This he was not slow in making. 

After our repast was over we entered into a mutual interchange of 
the causes which had led us both to that lonely and disconsolate 
region. He said that a sad and grievous disappointment in the most 
cherished hopes of his life was the prime cause of his isolation. He 
was a native of North Carolina ; moved thence to Georgia, and then 
to Tennessee, where all that he possessed on earth, both social and 
pecuniary, was swept away at one blast by the perfidy of a woman's 
heart. In all my life-long rambles, I have seldom observed woman 
to be fallacious in her professions or inconstant or abating in her 
avowed attachments. 

I feel called upon to relate, as narrated to me, the acts of one of 
the most perfidious hearts extant, and I would fain do so with all 
charity ; for experience has long since taught me that the infirmities 
of the human heart are great, and its perfections few. 

The tenor of this man's story ran about as follows : He was a 
man of some property, reputable, of social standing, refinement and 
intelligence. As to the latter, it beamed unmistakably on his face, 
and was shown in the spontaneous flow of his conversation. He 
loved a young lady for her individual ladylike self, with all that 
tender pathos that lovely woman, in her gentle and serene amiability, 
is capable of inspiring. His devotions were fathomless and his con- 
fidence illimitable. Had the inhabitants of the entire globe congre- 
gated in one massed battalion, and in one voice, proclaimed in tones 
that would have reverberated from ocean to ocean, that she was 
false, fickle or untrue to him, he would not have believed it. But in 
his wooings he had a fawning rival, for whom he thought there was 



122 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

not a feather's weight with his lady-love. But, alas ! the sequel dis- 
closed to him the opposite extreme. While he acquired the hand, his 
rival gained the heart of the object of his idolized hopes. He had 
suspected nothing of the kind for the time being, and to those only 
who have solaced in that thrilling and exquisite beatitude, are known 
what exquisite delight to him to plume for the flight to that Eden of 
connubial bliss, the virtues and fruition of which are claimed to be 
the only unalloyed element that has survived the fall. 

The happy day was set, and with it arrived the parish parson, duly 
equipped by the county clerk, as the law directs, and with silken 
fetters entwined around their pathetic hearts that balmy connubial 
wreath which transforms two into one. The moments flit away with 
that senene beatitude that mutual wedlock only can afford. Not a 
ripple or bubble disturbed the placid waves o'er which their flowery 
barque so merrily floated. The sun, with all his resplendent glory, 
beamed inimitably over and around them ; the crimson hues that 
dimmed the radiance of his brilliant face, as he receded o'er the 
Western hills, added enchantment to their surroundings as they loi- 
tered through fragrant bowers, where the misty dew-drops of twilight 
were robing the verdure of nature, as well as their happy brows, 
with its balmy elements. The robes of earth were fringed with more 
variegated hues and exquisite enchantment. The moon beamed 
more serenely soft, and lovely, as they sat together with concentrated 
vision on the glimmering twinkling of a dewy leaf that vibrated 
with the soft and gentle breezes. And all nature seemed to be 
wrapped in an enchanting round of transporting glory. 

In a business vein his heart had long dreamed of the fairy lands 
of the far West, and on a suggestive intimation to his wife of his 
ideal fancies, she seemed to embrace and approve of them with 
more emotional fervor than himself, and with smiles suggested, even 
urged, that he would convert all his effects into cash, and emigrate at 
once to the goal of their anticipated fortune. 

With this consoling support from the idol of his bosom, he was at 
once moved to action. He converted his effects into cash, and made 
all pre-requisite arrangements for their exit Westward. While these 
preparatory arrangements were in course of progress, she likewise 
suggested it would be prudent for him to place all his money, except 
traveling change, in a belt, and let her wear it. Pickpockets , on the 
way would be less likely to suspect her of having money than him. 
The idea not only met his hearty approval, but elicited from him 
his compliments for her kindness and precaution, and he did as she 
suggested. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 123 

Now all was soon in readiness to go, and pathetic was the commo- 
tion among friends, until the locomotive of the railroad moved them 
away. In bidding their friends adieu, his old rival was seen among 
them, but he manifested no more emotions of feeling than a sort of 
assumed alacrity of indifference. The whistle blew, and the train 
moved off with puff and clatter. 

The weather was fair and pleasant, and they had a nimble train to 
St. Louis, where they stopped to change cars. While waiting, he 
placed his wife in the ladies' waiting-room of the Union depot, and 
went up town to attend to some business. On his return, he found 
his wife missing. He immediately looked carefully around the entire 
place but failed to find any sight of her. He returned to the place 
where he had left her, and commenced making inquiry. The parties 
nearest to the spot were some ladies, whom he accosted first, and was 
informed by them that the lady he had left there went away with a 
gentleman. On his further inquiry about the gentleman, he was as- 
sured beyond all possible doubt, from the description of the man, 
that it was his identical old rival. 

These ladies told him that the man came in and took a seat beside 
the lady that he had left, and after some low conversation, they over- 
heard the man say : " Go now or never," and with a flushed face of 
excitement, she rose to her feet, took his arm, and they hurriedly 
went away. 

" Deal gently fate, withhold thy stings 
From love and hopes so fondly given ; 
Though here we differ on earthly things, 
May our love and hopes be one in heaven." 

He said that he remained about St. Louis more than a week in 
concert with detectives, but in the hubbub of so great a city no trace 
of them could be found. He said that he proposed to the detectives 
to publish the affair, but they protested on the grounds that a publi- 
cation would only be a mouth- piece to the fugitives, and would 
thwart their operations. 

Hope, like a morning vapor, soon vanished. He was led from St. 
Louis by the icy hand of unrelenting despair, absolutely denuded, 
not only of all that he hitherto possessed that was worth living for, 
but of all confidence in mankind ; and under the impetus of this 
impulse, he wended his way to his isolated home in the far Western 
mountains, where I found him. 

He said that his rival was a man absolutely destitute of every 



124 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

noble attribute that go to constitute a gentleman, and of every trait 
of character except a smooth, loquacious tongue and a heart as black 
as the sooty side of tophet. I asked him for the names of all the 
parties connected with the affair, but he declined to give them, for 
the reason that his friends were still on the alert, and silence was 
their adopted policy. 

He said that he was going under the assumed name of Harper, but 
the day was coming when he expected to give to the world the history 
of his life, embracing the details of this entire affair ; and from the 
short and dim insight I had of it, it will certainly be of startling and 
thrilling interest. 

I have long been persuaded that those pathetic emotions that are 
so fondly cherished amid the human breast, denominated love, is an 
innate child of the heart and not a transplant of culture. It is true 
that culture is a great auxiliary in developing its blooms and matur- 
ing its fruit, but it must be native born to be productive of lasting 
fruit. When such is its primitive origin, though doomed like the 
race of the forest, uncultured and unseen, yet it will bloom, and 
glow, and spend its balmy fragrance on desert air. Hoary frost may 
blast it by his icy grasps ; chilling snowflakes may mantle and en- 
viron it from the glowing radiance of the object of its consecra- 
tions; yet, so long as vitality remains and vibrates amid the environs 
of the bosom, these consecrated innate affections will be there still, 
and when the first genial rays of sunlight melt away its icy shroud 
and illuminate its dismal grove, it will bud and bloom afresh, and, 
tendrill like, will fawningly cling to its lordly monarch, though he be 
prostrated in the quagmire of degradation. 

Break the vase, crush it if you will, 
Yet the scent of the rose will be there still. 
Your sunny eyes may lose their brightness, 
Your nimble feet may lose their lightness. 
Your pearly teeth may all decay, 
Your raven tresses turn to gray. 

Yet to you, fadeless will be this loving heart. But when it is a 
transplant, it must be nourished, watered, sheltered, and petted, or it 
will shrivel and fade and flit away like summer birds to more con- 
genial climes. And should you lavish all your wealth upon its cul- 
ture and succeed in its retention, its fruits will be dwarfed and unpala- 
table, and will never remunerate you for your expenditure. So 
sayeth my ideal fancies. For the writer, Lazarus like, has only been 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 125 

permitted to pick up the crumbs that fall from these tables of con- 
nubial bliss. 

My host sa'd that it was a night and day's travel from his retreat 
to the first settlement, where he had a friend with whom he deposited 
his furs and hides until he chose to go with them to market. This 
was twice a year, in the spring and fall. He then purchased his sup- 
plies and transported them back by wagon to his friend, with whom 
he left them, and drew on them when needed. He kept his horse 
near him in a secluded ravine, where grazing and water was plentiful, 
and upon him he packed out his furs and hides and brought back his 
rations, invariably leaving his retreat under cover of night, and return- 
ing the same way. 

After two days' and nights' pleasant stay with this mountain trap- 
per, I left him, with my haversack heavy laden with all the best of 
his edible viands, and all the good wishes that his generous heart 
could lavish upon me. It was with some reluctancy that I parted 
from this man, not only on account of his generous hospitality, but 
I was favorably impressed with his integrity and honest intentions, 
which is a jewel I do not find in the head of every frog I meet. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

My exit from the lone motdntain trapper — Transit through one of the 
most Jaggy and disconsolate niou/iiain regions that I ever traversed, 
succeeded by a beautiful plain — That soo?i defaced by a conflagra- 
tion — My hazardous and appalling condition — My escape and its 
distressing consequences — The meeting of old friends and their 
hospitable greeting and kind attention. 

AS 1 made my way south from the lone trapper's, I passed 
through some of the most mountainous country that I had 
hitherto seen. With the exception of one platte all the country 
lying between the red fork of the Colorado and north fork of the 
Concho rivers, is one continuous upheaval of mountains and knobs, 
and I found my way not only tedious and tiresome, but very difficult. 
I would often be abruptly confronted by perpendicular walls, and 
craggy bluffs, that it was impossible for anything that travelled on 
foot to ascend. I would as often be compelled to retrace my trail 
for some distance and then circumambulate for miles these mountain 
bluffs, before I could again get on my right course. 

• The man that undertakes to ramble these labyrinths without a 
compass and map, and a geographical knowledge of where he is and 
the point to which he wishes to go, will, e're long, find himself irre- 
trievably lost. 

Many of my readers have no doubt gone through with many soul- 
trying and nerve-straining perils, privations and hardships, especially 
those who were actively engaged in the bullet department in the 
thrilling events of the late war between the States. I know from 
actual experience that these were trying times and incidents, fraught 
with perils, privations and hardships of more preponderance than my 
feeble pen can depict. 

But you should remember that there we had company, and some- 
time one would be led to think, from the rattling and smoking hub- 
bub that reverberated through his surroundings, that it was a jolly 
crowd. But in this lonely and disconsolate region, I was environed 
by absolute isolation except my faithful horse and the reverberating 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 127 

howls of carnivorous beasts of the forest. To all this add a tremu- 
lous apprehension of the inimical mountain bandit, and the feather- 
capped red man of the plains. 

If you feel any dubiousness about the component elements of your 
intrepidity or indefatigability, a trip such as the writer has made, 
through the recesses of these wild, jaggy mountains, will allay all 
your equivocal apprehensions or presumptions, and give you a vivid 
and palpable perception of the kind and quality of stuff that you 
are made of. 

I suffered less for water in these mountain jungles than any portion 
of my rambles. Sparkling springs bubbled up from neath the rock, 
or vehemently gushed from the mountain sides at short intervals. 
As to my rations, they Avere like the boy said of his sweetheart's but- 
ter, very nice what there was of it, and there was plenty of it such as 
it was. 

I finally came to a trail leading from Fort Griffin to the Conchos, 
and from thence I made my way out of the labyrinthical jungle§ by 
way of Sugar Loaf Mountain, located northwest of Concho County, 
and steered my way southeast, down the west side of Colorado river, 
through a tolerable fair prairie country, at least it contrasted so fa- 
vorably with the conglomerated jungles that I had for several days 
past been so disconsolatingly rambling through, that I felt as much 
relieved as a bird that had escaped from its pent-up cage. On the 
second day afterwards I entered upon a broad, beautiful plain that 
stretched away unbrokenly to its junction with the illimitable blue 
that serenely mantled and encircled it. But my enjoyment of this 
tranquilizing scenery was doomed to a short duration; for ere old 
Sol made his exit Chinawards, his radiant face was draped with a 
hazy mantle of smoke and cinders, and ere the solitude of night 
spread its dismal shades around me, crimson hues began to glimmer 
around the circle and contest the engrossing sovereignty of the shades 
of darkness. The vaults of the aerial elements soon became as 
brightly crimson as the eastern horizon on the dawn of a fairy spring 
morning, and ere long I was doomed to realize the appalling fact 
that I was environed by the raging furies of consuming flames. 

A space of about one-fourth the circle, extending from my rear to 
my left, was the only dark spot that I could see on the horizon of 
my surroundings, and I made off in that direction in a lively pace ; 
but before I made more than two miles 1 saw that the eastern wing 
of the rapidly advancing conflagration would intercept my flight in 
that direction. I wheeled about and bounded away with all the ve- 



128 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

locity I could make under vehement spur persuasion, from point to 
point, until my horse fagged down to a creeping trot from the ex- 
haustion of labor and the suffocation of smoke. My own throat, 
from the inhalation of smoke and cinders, felt as dry and rough as a 
stove-pipe, contrasting widely with my eyes that flooded like a rip- 
pling rill. 

The tumultuous wind bellowed and whiffed with such glowing heat 
that I thought I could feel my hair sizzing and crisping into those 
fascinating ringlets that so conspicuously adorn the fleecy, odorifer- 
ous scalp of the fifteenth constitutional amendment to our ga-lorious 
republic ; and yet the flames were miles away. 

But intense beyond conception was the heat, which was magnifying 
with the speed of electricity. As the velocity of the wind approxi- 
mated the flames with inconceivable rapidity and terror, it frantically 
precipitated me into an intractable frenzy ; and as it lashed its long 
flaming tongues skyward, in the similitude of an indignant, ven- 
om6us adder, cattle, horses, deer, and the clerk of darkness could 
only tell what else, went pell-mell by me in the most frantic and 
startling commolion. What to do was a problem deeper than the 
ocean and broader than the extremities of the poles of the globe, 
and I had no time to either fathom or survey it, or denude it of its 
conglomerated intricacy. I had, in the memorable days of the past, 
faced the flash and boom of cannon and the smoking rattle of mus- 
ketry, and had in time been tempest tossed o'er the foaming billows 
of the briny deep ; but never in all my life had I felt half so tremu- 
lous and dismayed at the seeming inexorable prognostics of grim 
death as I did at the approach of these firey flames, which there 
and then threatened to dismember mind and matter. 

A hole in the ground is a place that I never have had much 
admiration for, and it is the last place that I expect to be put into ; 
but on this occasion a hole in the ground would have been one of 
the most acceptable boons that old mother earth could have 
tendered me. I remembered having been forewarned ot the icy 
grasps of death, but I was fast being persuaded that the 
pulpit orators had made a mistake relative to my case. I 
concluded, however, that a prayer meeting would not be amiss, 
and I hastily ruminated over all the old camp - meeting and 
corn-shucking psalms and songs that I had ever heard, but the key- 
notes had all slipped my memory. I made a cursory reminiscence 
of some of the leading prayers, but the first < ne that popped up was 
an old dinner grace, " Make us thankful for what we are about to 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 129 

receive." I remembered something about Pharisees and hypocrites 
asking for what they did not desire, and I abandoned that strain. I 
could think of nothing more but the child's prayer — " Now I lay me 
down to sleep." I concluded that the place and circvmstances were 
too inappropriate for a snooze, and I abandoned the whole enterprise, 
and set about contriving a more practicable method of extrication. 
I finally thought of my matches, and concluded to clean off a patch 
of my own. I dismounted and ignited the tawny sward, and very 
soon had a play-yard of my own, in which to squint and squirm 
from the scorching flames and blinding smoke and cinders that so 
unrelentingly entwined their spiral fumes around me. 

By the time the main column of the fuming blazes approximated, 
I had a field of fifty acres or more denuded of everything except 
sooty cinders and fuming atmosphere, of which I was the solitary 
weeping and suffocating sovereign. 

After the hubbub was over, I found that it was absolutely useless 
for me to try to go anywhere, or to do anything, but remain there 
and wink, weep and snort until morning; for the throes of my sur- 
roundings, supplemented by the sooty robes of midnight darkness, 
precluded any effort at extrication ; and there, in the agonizing 
embrace of disconsolation, I remained, winking and blinking, squint- 
ing and squirming, and weeping and snorting with a suffocating 
cough, until the dawn of day disclosed the transformation of a 
beautiful tawny- sward to that of a sooty, charred surface. 

From the aspect of my hands, and as much of the point of my nose 
as I could see, I felt assured that my ballot would not have been 
rejected under the Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment to our illu- 
minating progress. 

On the morning after this memorable night I suffered intensely for 
water, far beyond any pen picture that I can here portray, and I had 
good reason to feel assured that my horse was suffering no less than 
myself. My rations were nearly out, and in quite an unpalatable 
condition. As to grazing for my horse, it was consumed in the con- 
flagration, and withal I imagined that a plashing bath in fresh water 
would have a tendency to reclaim my identity as a light-colored 
American citizen, to say nothing of the exquisite relief that it would 
afford my weeping eyes and nostrils ; and, under the impetus of 
these prevailing convictions, I hastened forward south, with inor- 
dinate desires and yearning hopes of soon reaching water. And as 
I wended my way over the charred and sooty plains I passed a 
multipHcity of defunct, distorted and crisped animals of the plains. 



130 TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 

Some were still writhing in the throes of expiration, tongues lolling 
out, crisped, swollen and distorted ; eyes protruding from their 
sockets and dangling, like apples suspended from a tree. A deline- 
ation of this horrifying and appalling scene is far beyond the strokes 
of my pen, and to impress on your mind a true picture, you must go 
where I have gone, and see what I have seen. 

It was past noon before I reached the headwaters of Brady's 
Creek, which flows through McCulloch and San Saba counties to the 
Colorado river. At the headwaters of this creek I found splendid 
water and grazing for my hungry and debilitated horse, for at this 
creek terminated the conflagration, and I staked him knee deep in 
grass ; and, notwithstanding the water was quite cold, for the time 
was yet early in the spring, I disrobed and submerged my sooty indi- 
viduality into its chilly elements, and splashed and spluttered, until 
I felt somewhat assured that I was at least a cleaner man, if not a 
whiter one. I emerged to the swardy banks and donned my habila- 
ments, and with a voracious appetite devoured the last morsel of the 
viands so cordially donated to me by the lone mountain trapper. 
My repast over, I wrapped up in my blanket, and in a rambling 
snooze wandered through imaginary bonfires until next morning, 
when I remounted, and steered my course, by compass and map, in 
the direction of Fort Mason. 

And right here, lest some inexperienced and inconsiderate, yet 
ambitious, young reader may be erroneously impressed with the ideal 
fancy that such thrilling scenes are magnificent in their mien and 
glorious in their fruition, I would modestly say that such hazardous 
exploits are as empty of fame or pleasure as a drum. 



The summer of 1879 ^^^^ now drawing near its close. My health 
was still declining, and I was advised by my physician to seek a 
change of climate, but the thought of returning home had ever been 
repugnant to me, and I very reluctantly consented. I knew that, 
like all mortals, I had my weak points, and that a repugnance to 
return was most prominent among them ; but when appeals upon 
appeals came pressing upon me from an aged mother, and one, too, 
that loved me with all my faults, and perhaps the only one that has 
ever felt for me the tender sympathies of true affection, this argu- 
ment bore down upon me with a force which I could no longer bear, 
and my consent was given to return to the home of my youth, the 
dearest spot on earth to me. 



TEN YEARS IN TEXAS. 



131 



At home again, the most idolized spot on earth with me ! It was 
long, long years ago I left thee, while I was quite a young man, and 
in my unbridled temerity I ignored thy paternal caressings, around 
which fond memory has enshrined the happiest moments and bright- 
est links in the chain of my life. From thy solacing presence I have 
severed those silken fetters of mutual affection, and launched my 
tiny and inexperienced craft upon the billowing waves of a cold and 
unsympathetic world. 



